"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

PBS Africans in America Web site ^ | 1852 | Frederick Douglass

[Dianna]

But was it wrong to them? What are we practicing today that might be considered sin a century and a half in the future? Who among us has the answer?

Slavery was self evidently wrong to some people, perfectly acceptable to others. It may very well be that abortion will become as reviled in the future as slavery is now.

The stain on us will be that we (as a society) condemned slavery while embracing abortion.

[billbears]

I grew up in the North but I knew that people had slaves up North. But you can't compare North and South...

Well of course you can't!!

. . . slavery recedes, but the prejudice to which it has given birth is immovable. Whoever has inhabited the United States must have perceived that in those parts of the Union in which the Negroes are no longer slaves they have in no wise drawn nearer to the whites. On the contrary, the prejudice of race appears to be stronger in the states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists; and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those states where servitude has never been known.

It is true that in the North of the Union marriages may be legally contracted between Negroes and whites; but public opinion would stigmatize as infamous a man who should connect himself with a Negress, and it would be difficult to cite a single instance of such a union. The electoral franchise has been conferred upon the Negroes in almost all the states in which slavery has been abolished, but if they come forward to vote, their lives are in danger. If oppressed, they may bring an action at law, but they will find none but whites among their judges; and although they may legally serve as jurors, prejudice repels them from that office. The same schools do not receive the children of the black and of the European. In the theaters gold cannot procure a seat for the servile race beside their former masters; in the hospitals they lie apart; and although they are allowed to invoke the same God as the whites, it must be at a different altar and in their own churches, with their own clergy. The gates of heaven are not closed against them, but their inferiority is continued to the very confines of the other world. When the Negro dies, his bones are cast aside, and the distinction of condition prevails even in the equality of death. Thus the Negro is free, but he can share neither the rights, nor the pleasures, nor the labor, nor the afflictions, nor the tomb of him whose equal he has been declared to be; and he cannot meet him upon fair terms in life or in death.---Alexis DeTocqueville

[cyborg]

No. Apparently they thought Mel Gibson signing up a slave to fight next to white people in the movie The Patriot, was unrealistic.

[livius]

A beautiful speech, and I'd never read it all. (Just excerpts.)

Thanks for posting, although, alas, I doubt that the AFT/UFT and the educational establishment will ever allow our students to learn about it.

[Calpernia]

>>>* Do not underestimate yourself about your ability to homeschool. My mother had a ninth grade education. She taught me to read from English colonial readers and these little red horn books. That was when I was three. I've never really learned anything in any school setting ever since then.

I know what you are saying. I've been on many threads lately with Domestic Church and Homeschoolmom. My problem comes with dividing the attention. NONE of my kids tolerate attention on one and not the other. It turns into a cycle battle. I've been told it is cause I have no control. But their confidence and self respect is extra ordinary. I see them at school stand up to high schoolers. So I refuse to break their spirit.

I don't know. I have no judgement on breaking them down. I have no control over grouping them and getting their attention. Yet, their grades are mastery on their state tests. My oldest is only 8. I have nothing to go by.

[F16Fighter]

What an articulate, meaningful and moving oratory through the mind and heart of Frederick Douglas regarding the irony of 'Independence Day' in his day.

Listening to him must have been absolutely spellbinding.

[cyborg]

Like I said, I'm not looking to turn this into a North vs. South. You assume because I live here in NY, that I have a bias against the South. Not true. That's why I said what I said. The underground railroad didn't go sideways. It went North. The fact remains that blacks had more freedom in the North. yes I am sure they had to deal with racism, but not Jim Crow and lynching, especially in big cities like New York City. I was just pointing out things I observe. Now I can talk about living on Long Island amongst white trash and black trash who hate eachother. I can talk about getting made fun of for my mother's West Indian accent or my father looking like Archie Bunker here in the North BUT that's another thread.

[cyborg]

Now I read your profile and saw you think highly of Thomas Jefferson. I happen to have owned J.Peterman TJ shirt which I wore religiously. I also believe NASCAR ought to be up North AND I'm probably the only Northerner to have had a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox.

Now will you be my friend?

[Old Professer]

When I was between the ages of 10 and 13 I had to walk to school about the back road of gravel across the paved road and down to the schoolhouse; along the way, at the corner of the paved road there was a house with a man who I later learned was about 25 years old and mentally deficient, but all I knew of him at the time was that he always had a band-aid across his nose as it was always rubbed raw from his constant scratching at the scab.

I often think about that poor, young man at times like this.

[cyborg]

You mean people who pick at scabs incessantly? Scabs are a sign of healing and when you pick them, it takes longer and longer to heal. Or am I reading too much into your post?

[billbears]

Now will you be my friend?

LOL. Of course. Anybody good enough to carry a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox up there can't be bad at all ;)

[PatrioticAmerican]

Slavery is over, so what's the point?

[Old Professer]

The man to whom I referred was real, the conclusion you drew is how I feel; when I moved away from home, the man was still there, band-aid and all. Maybe there is one of him everywhere.

[cyborg]

I would not go into my lifestory but it applies to me personally. Also, I would say that man demonstrates all that is wrong with the great debate about racial matters in America. It's easier to pick at a small thing than to take a great leap of faith. Sometimes the small stupid scab you were picking at, turns into an infection of flesh eating bacteria.

Philosophy of scab-picking meditations to be continued...

[ladyinred]

What a lovely post Beth. Would that all immigrants had this attitude. Happy Independence day!

[lonestar]

Have firecrackers; will pop! :)

[MoJo2001]

Perhaps you are correct. My ancestors are basically on a tiny South Pacific island. I would have to trace back almost 16 generations to find out whether they were slaves or slaveholders. As far as I know, they were neither. Not all peoples of the world were slaves or slaveholders. What a concept, huh? Some people of color were never enslaved or slaveholders.

[Moosefart]

Love your moniker. To Kill a Mockingbird is my all time favorite movie.

[GOPcapitalist]

That website unfortunately leaves out much of the speech, including what I find to be the key passages.

[ccmay]

Hey Arc, why did you think this great piece would offend anyone here?

FR has a few 'South-will-rise-again' types who would find this speech uncomfortable, and deservedly so. I lived in San Antonio for a while and got a belly full of that kind of blowhard. The old South is dead, gone forever, and not lamented for a moment by decent people.

-ccm