what is the main message of douglass's speech?

You may rejoice, I must mourn. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? THAT HOUR WILL, COME, to each, to all, I said then and throughout his presidency that rather than freeing us from talking about race, his election freed us to talk about it; and we entitled that first event: Reading Frederick Douglass in the Age of Obama.. Space is comparatively annihilated. Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. Douglass's purpose in writing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave was to provide a first-hand account of the horrors of slavery and thereby support the. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? GAZETTE: What is the historical setting for this speech, and why did Douglass focus on the Fourth of July? Without this fight, the liberty of an American citizen would be as insecure as that of a Frenchman. In some ways, the first part of the speech is a traditional patriotic speech. His message was well-received because they believed in what he was standing up for. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a byword to a mocking earth. For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Its an extraordinary political moment.. And the contradiction of Americas just ideals and unjust realities endures, too. Why does he do this? The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! They did so in the form of a resolution; and as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds and help my story if I read it. We may finally be thinking about creating a commission to study the possibility of reparationsas with all deliberate speed, the American way of tackling a problem takes so much time and patienceand for this we can be thankful. had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. A champion of America's great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation's history and culture. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? How does he show that everyone in America, North and South, views enslaved Africans as human beings. Be warned! Douglass presented this speech to an antislavery societyan audience that was already on his side.

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