(The following is part 6 of a series on the American Revolution, which began with the serialization of chapter 7 of my book Defeating Slavery: Hamilton’s American System Showed the Way; that chapter dealt with the Declaration of Independence. Having concluded the serialization in part 4, (Parts 1, 2, and 3 can be found on the blog), I am moving on to some of the debate about the Declaration, which will help us appreciate its uniqueness. Last week we heard from one of its British opponents. This week we turn to a domestic commentator, the formerly enslaved Frederick Douglass.)
By Nancy Spannaus
August 11, 2024—These days it has become almost standard for well-meaning civil rights advocates of all backgrounds to attack the alleged hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence with the words of renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “What, to the American Slave, is your 4th of July?,” they declaim, echoing the best-known phrase from Douglass’ 1852 speech to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, New York on July 5. They go on to agree with Douglass that the celebrations, and allegedly the Declaration itself, are “a sham.”
Frederick Douglass as a young man.
But is that really what Douglass thought about the Declaration of Independence? Does that one sentence capture the message that the famed orator sought to convey? I challenge you to read his whole speech, and still come to that conclusion. Let’s take a look at what he said both before and after that famous sentence.
“… I will unite with you to honor their memory”
The first section of Douglass’s speech is devoted to describing the context in which the Declaration came about. Step by step, he outlines the way in which the Founding Fathers came to the conclusion that we had to declare our independence, and concludes that he fully agrees with the principles they put forward:
I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
Their action was “sublime,” he says. “I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too—great enough to give fame to a great age. … They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for I will unite with you to honor their memory.”
Many of you may find it hard to believe these statements come from Douglass’ speech. Read it for yourself.
What about the Present?
Of course, Douglass does not conclude his speech here. Noting that the past must be viewed from the standpoint of its use for the future, he confronts his audience with the horrible reality that those noble principles of the Declaration, 76 years later, are still being denied to his race!
Douglass is speaking in 1852, a pivotal period in the conflict over slavery in the United States. The Fugitive Slave Act (1850) has just been passed, making it a crime for states not to return runaway slaves to bondage, and actually financially rewarding judges who return a black man to slavery. The cotton economy and internal slave trade are in full swing, and the Southern slavocracy is determined to press on with slave expansion. Southern politicians and even clergymen are beginning to declare that slavery is not a moral evil, but an economic necessity; they now herald it as a positive good!
It is this reality that Douglass refuses to ignore, and demands that his audience face head-on. “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to the future,” he says. “The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
This, then, is the context for that famous statement: “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” It is not a condemnation of the Declaration and those who framed it with the intention of putting it into effect. Rather, it is a scathing rebuke to those hypocrites and authorities who have turned their backs on the principles in that Declaration, and are moving instead to nationalize slavery through the Fugitive Slave Law. Even more heinous, he charges, are the churches and pastors, who blaspheme by defending slavery, and become “champions of oppressors.”
Continue slavery, he charges, and unless you “fling from you the hideous monster,” you will destroy your nation.
The Constitution: “A GLORIOUS, LIBERTY DOCUMENT”[1]
Douglass does not end there. He goes on to briefly state one of his most controversial assertions: that the U.S. Constitution in no way warrants or sanctions the hateful practice of slavery. “On the other hand, it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery,” he argues.
Therefore, he concludes, I end this speech “with hope.” “While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.” Douglass saw intelligence growing, nations coming together, and evils being exposed and put on the road to elimination. He concludes by quoting a poem by his former close collaborator William Lloyd Garrison[2]:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o’er
When from their galling chains set free,
Th’ oppress’d shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom’s reign,
To man his plundered fights again
Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end.
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant’s presence cower;
But all to manhood’s stature tower,
By equal birth!
THAT HOUR WILL, COME, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house, the thrall
Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I’ll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive—
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate’er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.
Next Installment: Lincoln and the Declaration
[1] All caps in the original.
[2] As founder and head of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Garrison had sponsored and promoted the fugitive slave Douglass from the late 1830s on, but by the late 1840s, Douglass began to go his separate way. He founded his own newspaper, the North Star, against Garrison’s advice, and then in 1851, at a meeting of the AASS, publicly broke with Garrison over the issue of whether abolition could be achieved within the framework of the U.S. Constitution. For more, click here.
Tags: Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass, Nancy Spannaus, William Lloyd Garrison