Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July, 1852

Short-answer questionAbout 13 minutes

Source 1

Frederick Douglass, who had escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838, speech in Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852

Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? . . . I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. . . . This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. . . . My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view.

(A) Describe the claim Douglass makes about the Fourth of July in the excerpt.

(B) Explain how Douglass's own experience shaped the perspective he expresses in the excerpt.

(C) Describe one strategy, other than public speeches, that African Americans used to resist slavery in the period 1830 to 1860.

(D) Explain how African American activists in a later period used the ideals of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution to demand equal rights.