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What The Slave Is The Fourth Of July Analysis

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By the 1850’s many Americans in the North began to oppose slavery in the South because many thought slavery to be religiously wrong and immoral. Additionally, slavery was causing a political division between slave and free states, and was coming in the way of the national growth of the United States. Moreover, the horror of how slavery was practiced, religious values, and the political crisis slavery were the main features of slavery that were affecting and influencing the opinions of Northerners.
Those Americans who lived in the North didn’t’ just have a moral enlightenment. In the early 19th century, reform movements began to develop that engaged many Northerners in the abolitionist movement. Lectures, essays, books, and pamphlets were being …show more content…

Many Northerners would travel to hear his detailed speeches on his experience being a slave. In his speech, What the slave is the Fourth of July, Douglass points out that a country based on liberty and who boasts on “national greatness” is committing a sin. “…with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages”(Douglass). Additionally, in the book, Twelve Years a Slave, Bass, a native of Canada, makes a similar argument. “…it’s all wrong-all wrong sir-there’s no justice nor righteousness in it…Now in the sight of God, what is the difference, Epps, between a white man and a black one”(Northup, p.123)? Douglass points out Americas crimes against God in hopes that Americans would acknowledge how religious and morally wrong slavery is. Similarly, Bass points out a corresponding argument, on how slavery is unjust, while speaking with Epps. Ultimately, both abolitionists hoped to persuade Americans/Northerners away from slavery by addressing the evils of slavery and its threat to religious

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1. Fredrick Douglass witnessed harsh and violent actions throughout his slave life, as slave owners utilized Christianity as a justification for these actions and for the system of slavery. Douglass experienced this religious abuse throughout his life as a slave. However, in 1832, when he began working for Captain Auld, he witnessed the misuse of religion in the setting of a violent action. After Auld whipped a young woman, he justified his actions by quoting the Bible: “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many strips” (33).

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Douglass claims that America will forever be oblivious to all of the hardships and struggles and burdens slaves have endured for the past hundred years. Since he feels so strongly about slaves getting the justice they so rightly deserve, Douglass warns the audience that even if his language is not right, nothing he says will be untrue. He wants the audience to be able to easily realize how slavery really is the sin of America. Frederick Douglass addresses the hypocrisy of American Slavery in his Independence Day Address, and he uses specific rhetorical devices to get to the heart of his audience. Frederick Douglass states that “America reigns without a rival.

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He questions his audience of the significance of Independence Day to slaves, and he answers it in an extremely contrasting way: “your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; … your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery,” that the celebration is “a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.” Douglass dismisses the national pride, characterizing it as a mere expression of people’s ignorance. The antithesis, with “greatness” being “vanity,” “sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless,” and “shouts of liberty and equality” being “hollow mockery,” provokes shock and anger from the audience, who have just been part of it and are now degraded as “savages.” However, Douglass was not trying to be inflammatory but provocative, witnessing the pathetic enthusiasm in the anniversary, that people feel exuberant about themselves while ignoring the saddening

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418 Words | 2 Pages

Many Northerners believed that slavery was not good for anyone. Douglass argues that slavery hurts the slave and makes slave owners do things they wouldn 't normally do. Douglass wanted everyone to understand that slavery was not a good thing and needed to be abolished. ¨ He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told

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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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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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Slavery was one of the most important economic aspects of life of the Old South. It depended on the perpetuation of slavery. When their system of life was being questioned, the author, who is claimed to be anonymous, defended their ways as morally correct as mandated by God. The essay appeared in De Bow’s Review in September of 1850. The author of the essay was anonymous because he “apparently did not want to be associated with such a straight forward summary of the pro slavery argument” (Finkleman, 108).

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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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What to the Slave is the Fourth of July Introduction The 4th of July is an important day in American history it represents freedom and is usually associated with fireworks, parades, alcohol, and concerts. Those activities more or less represent today’s culture. When Fredrick Douglass made his speech he talked about American values such as liberty, citizenship, and freedom. The irony of this speech was that at the time white Americans in the south were still participating in slave trading.

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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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1049 Words | 5 Pages

Here, Douglass exposes the Christian attempt to wash their hands of any guilt or wrong doing. Overall, Douglass exposes the truth behind this hypocrisy; when these slaveholders use God as a

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443 Words | 2 Pages

Slavery in America began in the early 16th century, and lasted through the late 19th century. There were many people that believed that slavery was tolerable, and there were others that believed that it was an unacceptable cause. One of the many abolitionist of slavery, Frederick Douglass, wrote and delivered The Hypocrisy of American Slavery Speech on July 4, 1852 to a assemblage of other abolitionists. In Douglass’ speech, he attempts to display that slaves are human beings and should be treated as such. He establishes a sympathetic tone to grasp the attention of the people who are allowing slavery to continue happening.

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1025 Words | 5 Pages

He declares, “to forget them [the slaves], to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world,” (para. 5). He discusses that slavery is unjust, and says that celebrating freedom with slavery would be treason. This helps the audience realize that celebrating freedom in their country is not a peccadillo, and they naturally will try to right the wrong because of their moral instincts by stopping their celebration. He also says, “to him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages,” (para. 15). In this quote, Douglass says that celebrating liberty is covering up a crime: slavery.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

he uses bold words and biting criticism to call attention to the gross injustices and hypocrisy of slavery in the United States. In the opening remarks of his speech, Douglas provides heart-wrenching descriptions to pull his audience into the lives of their fellow

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In movies, justice is often perceived as revenge, but according to the dictionary, justice is a means to impartiality and fairness. In Frederick Douglass’ speech given in 1852 at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence called, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” he explains justice as a means to have freedom and live life performing the daily tasks humans do to maintain a living. There is no debate when arguing that every man is entitled to liberty. It does not take a genius to understand the wrongfulness of slavery, yet Douglass believes it is a waste of his time trying to change the minds of the white race.

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