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Meaning Of July Fourth For The Negro, By Frederick Douglass

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In the speech: "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," by Frederick Douglass, he establishes his statement that the Fourth of July has no meaning to the black race. Spoken in 1st person point of view, Douglass supports the theme that change should occur for him and his colleauges. He establishes the conflict of the blacks not having the natural freedom they should have by using the styles of imagery and word choice. His purpose is to prove to the whites that the blacks themselves are people too and should have the same equality as them in order to be free. He expresses a mood of enthusiasm in order to gain rights for the blacks. Throughout the speech, Douglass explains various images like what they would be punished like and how slavery was like for him and his colleauges back when it was still a thing. Douglass would state that the blacks would get treated without respect or care. : " There are seventy - two crimes in the state of Virginia which, if committed by a black man ( no matter how ignorant he be ), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the same punishment." ( Douglass 8 ) This shows that the blacks were treated very unfair as compared to the whites who had more advantages. The audience on the other hand would not be …show more content…

Douglass states that, " there is not a nation on the Earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour ," which can show that slavery in the United States was a major issue. It was not easy for Douglass and the rest of the blacks to do it, but after a while, they almost brought slavery to an end. Douglass' speech helped changed the mindset of the whites partially, but not fully. Slavery was much difficult to abolish, so it ended up continuing for more years to

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In the Speech “The meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” by Fredrick Douglass repeats the word “argue” throughout his speech. For example, on line states,” would you have me argue…” “Must I argue…” this example of repletion in the speech emphasizes the fact that he must argue these points. Fredrick Douglass wants people to use logic to see that justification for slavery is wrong. Another example of repetition in the speech is the words “man and “ manhood. ”

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In the 1850’s slavery still hadn’t been abolished, slaves were not even allowed to celebrate the fourth of July and the fugitive slave act had just passed. The fugitive slave act allowed southern slaveholders to capture slaves who had escaped to the free states. This impacted the lives of many including Fredrick Douglas, a former slave. On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was asked to address the people of Rochester, New York. This was the 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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When most people hear the words “Fourth of July” they think about fireworks, cookouts, and sparklers. During the 1850’s, the Fourth of July served as a reminder of the many horrors and injustices in the world. On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass-- a former American slave, abolitionist leader and adroit speaker-- spoke in Rochester, New York about the affectation of celebrating independence. In his speech, “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery”, he claims celebrating independence is unethical when slavery is widespread. To convince the reader of his claim, he uses rhetorical questions, emotional appeal, and antithesis in hopes of shedding light and sparking action on the wrongful situation.

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Frederick Douglass’ speech “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July” effectively argues against slavery. In the text it states, “...above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave- we are called upon to prove that we are men?” (Douglas 763). This shows that slaves do the same thing white men do, most importantly it shows that they follow the same religion.

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Throughout Douglass's speech, he exceeds expectations by adding excellent examples of ethos, pathos, and unique tone. These examples help the audience see his viewpoints and helps him connect with them. The literary devices used in his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, aided in his fight against

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Douglass claimed that although slavery was abolished, blacks were living under a different kind of slavery after the Civil war. Discrimination and racism was prominent and there were few laws enforced. “So long as discriminatory laws ensured defacto white control over Southern blacks, then ‘slavery by yet another name’ persisted. ‘Slavery is not abolished,’ he contended, ‘until the black man has the ballot’ with which to defend his interests and freedom.” (Howard-Pitney 485).

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In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).

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So to the African American community in the south the 4th of July was just another day because unless you lived in the north you didn’t get to experience these freedoms that whites enjoyed. Fredrick Douglass was first invited to do a speech in Rochester, New York while addressing the Rochester Ladies Antislavery Society. It’s clear from the beginning of the speech that Fredrick appears very nervous and actually apologies to

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Douglass stated, “What am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?” He successfully expresses his pain and anger in this quote by providing images of his and his people’s suffering. He tapped into the emotions of his audience, such as mothers, workers, and those who have felt physically pain by exposing them to the amplified struggles he and others had to face. Nonetheless, he continually reminded the audience, both explicitly and subliminally, that his group of people are too human, and that the only difference they share is the color of their skin. He is pleading his cases and hoping that it gets across to his audience in hope they will do the right

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Freedom is the primary ideal upon which America was founded. It is the tenet most cherished by the original colonists; it is a pillar upon which they built the new government. However, freedom was denied to a large part of America's citizens for a long time. Frederick Douglas was one of the greatest activists for African-American freedom of the 19th century; he used literary works and speeches, instead of violence, to achieve his goals. In his piece "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?"

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Douglass is a African American that was a slave and did a Narrative about his time being a slave and in his Narrative he “threw light” at the American slave system. African American slave Frederick Douglass lived through a time of racism and how slavery was a natural thing to do but was a very awful thing. And slavery is when families who had colored skin were separated and sold of to a person that can do anything to them, the slave is pretty much like the slaveholder’s property. And in this essay I will talk about how Douglass’s position differs from those who supported slavery and also I will be talking about How Douglass used his Narrative to share his position. How Douglass “throws light” on the American Slave system is by showing

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In Frederick Douglass’s The Meaning of Fourth of July for the Negro, he exposes the hypocrisy and iniquity that is infused into considerably one of the most prolific American moments in history known as The Fourth of July. Douglass, who was a former slave that eventually reached freedom, was invited to speak about what Fourth of July meant for the black population within America. Although Douglass provided much gratitude to the Founding Fathers for their courage and ability to oppose oppressive systems, he criticizes the American country for its involvement within slavery. Slavery served as the foundation that constructed America, allowing for it fuel the economy and develop into a cultural and political norm within society.

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The fourth of July and slaves really don’t mix. Frederick douglass was born as a slave and he does a speech on the fourth of july and they are thinking that he is going to give a whora speech but he dont do that it 's the complete opposite of what they thought. In frederick douglass, Hypocrisy of American Slavery he attacks the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating freedom and independence with speeches, parades and platitudes, while, within its borders, nearly four million humans were being kept as slaves. Overall douglass has explained his speech through emotional,ethical,logical appeal and through rhetorical questions.

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With this, Douglass is addressing the topic of slavery and whether to abolish it or not. And goes about telling the hardships he went through.

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