American Exceptionalism: Land of Liberty, Foundation of Slavery - Part 6

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Part 6 of a Series

Rochester, New York, 1852

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire.”

- Frederick Douglass

On July 5th, 1852, 76 years and one day after the American colonies had declared independence, Frederick Douglass delivered a stinging rebuke to all the self-congratulatory speeches on all the flag-draped podiums that had just taken place across the country. In an invited speech in Rochester, N.Y., he asked the members of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”.

He didn’t mince his words: “To [the slave], your celebration is a sham,” he said, “your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than [those of] the people of these United States at this very hour.” That one-seventh of America’s population is in bondage, “brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie” – “a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs.” In short, “This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.”

Throughout his speech Douglass addresses his “fellow citizens”, not as “we” but as “you”. Yet his condemnation of America is more complicated than it seems. Looking back on the events of 1776, he praises the founding fathers as “statesmen, patriots and heroes . . . who staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country, [and] in their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.” His description of “the cornerstone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you” takes us back to John Winthrop’s city on a hill.

Because the founders were both brave and great men, he notes, the Constitution could not possibly have endorsed slavery, for “there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.” If this were not so, he continues, “instead of being the honest men I have before declared them to be, [the founders] were the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind.”

There is no record of how the members and guests of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society reacted to this speech, but they must have felt whiplashed between praise and condemnation, darkness and hope. In the end, after more than 10,000 words, Frederick Douglass’ message came down to a simple syllogism:

  1. Every human being knows that slavery is wrong for them.

  2. All slaves are human beings.

  3. Therefore, slavery is wrong for everyone and must be abolished.