Every year on Independence Day, activists across the political spectrum share Douglass' 4th of July speech, and I fear too few of them truly grasp its content.
I should note that Douglass does not ask What Good the Fourth of July to the Negro? but instead he asks about it about the slave. His speech is against slavery. He knows that and it is implicit in his speech that the Fourth of July is of great importance to the free Americans which included all free Black Americans at that time.
This is something Tunis Campbell knew when he declared 'I have long since determined that here I plant my trees' and worked so hard to turn Abolitionists against the idea of returning formerly enslaved persons to Liberia and towards the idea of American citizenship for all. There are reasons why Campbell was put in charge of the Freeman's Bureau in Georgia after the Civil War.
Slavery was a great stain and many Americans gave their lives so that other people might be free.
As Americans, we often think about Gettysburg and forget Vicksburg which happened at the same time. No Vicksburg Address. The Confederates surrendered at Vicksburg on 4 July 1863. It was this most bloody of battles which made Grant's name and ultimately led to the surrender at Appomattox two years later.
This victory also enabled the terrible gut churningly awful Trans-Atlantic slave trade to finally end in 1866 as the US and Britain joined forces to actively stop the slavers getting to Brazil. In the US, we tend to ignore that the Middle Passage continued long after the importation of enslaved people was officially banned.
America is not perfect but one has to believe that her 'greatest songs are still unsung' as the 1930s Ballad for America (brilliantly sung by Paul Robeson puts it ( https://youtu.be/rnXyGr668wg ) and it is one of my favourite patriotic songs. Hopefully Angel Eduardo approves its message as well.
Douglass was always hopeful for America, knowing that it was established on principles that would eventually apply to all. I contrast that to today's race essentialism, which assumes there is no hope.
Jul 4, 2022·edited Jul 4, 2022Liked by Angel Eduardo
PERFECT REMARKS FOR TODAY AND FOR EVERY DAY! I approve of Paul Robeson - one of my all-time heroes (along with Frederick Douglass and many others of such enlightened ilk).
Thank you for a thoughtful essay that I'm sharing. It's easier and faster to destroy than to make changes for the better. You have to think and persuade others to amend something. Destruction is thoughtless. Consider "And then what?" before tearing down our country, or someone, both literally and figuratively.
A lot of people are going to call this essay ignorant, but that's not quite right. You have to have some grasp of what Douglass actually meant to misrepresent it this cynically.
You think *my* interpretation is cynical? I’d love to hear how so.
Douglass also said, in 1857, “I know of no soil better adapted to the growth of reform than American soil."
"I know of no country where the conditions for affecting great changes in the settled order of things, for the development of right ideas of liberty and humanity, are more favorable than here in these United States."
Is my interpretation of those words cynical as well?
You cherry-picked a few sentences out of context from the speech to make it look like this was some sort of patriotic address, but Douglass wasn't praising America. He was praising certain noble ideas in the Constitution and laying out point by point how America consistently not only betrays them, but deploys them rhetorically to obscure or advance its systematic cruelty as needed. Douglass and his contemporaries believed that the evil of slavery was intrinsic to America and its system of government, not some aberration. They didn't call the US the Slave Power for nothing.
So no, this speech is not a love letter to America, it's an indictment. And again, I think you know better, but the organization that employs you demands that you pretend otherwise.
I would urge you to re-read what I wrote. My essay makes the exact point that Douglass’ speech isn’t a love letter but an indictment. But the *reason* for the indictment, as he himself noted in the speech—both at the beginning and at the end—is hope: hope that America can live up to its promise, BECAUSE he believes in its founding principles. I’m not the one who cherry picks from that speech to suit my political agenda. My entire point, which I state very clearly in this essay, is that people on both the left and the right cherry pick from the speech and obscure his intentions.
And for the record, no one controls what I say or write. I write precisely what I think and believe, and FAIR has never demanded or even gently suggested that I do or say anything except what I think and believe.
I should note that Douglass does not ask What Good the Fourth of July to the Negro? but instead he asks about it about the slave. His speech is against slavery. He knows that and it is implicit in his speech that the Fourth of July is of great importance to the free Americans which included all free Black Americans at that time.
This is something Tunis Campbell knew when he declared 'I have long since determined that here I plant my trees' and worked so hard to turn Abolitionists against the idea of returning formerly enslaved persons to Liberia and towards the idea of American citizenship for all. There are reasons why Campbell was put in charge of the Freeman's Bureau in Georgia after the Civil War.
Slavery was a great stain and many Americans gave their lives so that other people might be free.
As Americans, we often think about Gettysburg and forget Vicksburg which happened at the same time. No Vicksburg Address. The Confederates surrendered at Vicksburg on 4 July 1863. It was this most bloody of battles which made Grant's name and ultimately led to the surrender at Appomattox two years later.
This victory also enabled the terrible gut churningly awful Trans-Atlantic slave trade to finally end in 1866 as the US and Britain joined forces to actively stop the slavers getting to Brazil. In the US, we tend to ignore that the Middle Passage continued long after the importation of enslaved people was officially banned.
America is not perfect but one has to believe that her 'greatest songs are still unsung' as the 1930s Ballad for America (brilliantly sung by Paul Robeson puts it ( https://youtu.be/rnXyGr668wg ) and it is one of my favourite patriotic songs. Hopefully Angel Eduardo approves its message as well.
Douglass was always hopeful for America, knowing that it was established on principles that would eventually apply to all. I contrast that to today's race essentialism, which assumes there is no hope.
Yes! Through the Amendment process, our Founders know that their unfinished work could be continued!
PERFECT REMARKS FOR TODAY AND FOR EVERY DAY! I approve of Paul Robeson - one of my all-time heroes (along with Frederick Douglass and many others of such enlightened ilk).
This really shows the value of reading all of Douglass's words--and perceiving his essential optimism about the United States.
Thank you for a thoughtful essay that I'm sharing. It's easier and faster to destroy than to make changes for the better. You have to think and persuade others to amend something. Destruction is thoughtless. Consider "And then what?" before tearing down our country, or someone, both literally and figuratively.
A lot of people are going to call this essay ignorant, but that's not quite right. You have to have some grasp of what Douglass actually meant to misrepresent it this cynically.
You think *my* interpretation is cynical? I’d love to hear how so.
Douglass also said, in 1857, “I know of no soil better adapted to the growth of reform than American soil."
"I know of no country where the conditions for affecting great changes in the settled order of things, for the development of right ideas of liberty and humanity, are more favorable than here in these United States."
Is my interpretation of those words cynical as well?
Where do you see cynicism in Douglass's words? I'd like to know the passage to which you refer, since I don't see the cynicism. Quite the reverse.
Not in Douglass' words, but in the spin Angel puts on them in service of his astroturf right-wing "anti-racist" org
Still waiting for you to show me how I’m spinning Douglass’ words. How am I misunderstanding his message? I’d love to know.
You cherry-picked a few sentences out of context from the speech to make it look like this was some sort of patriotic address, but Douglass wasn't praising America. He was praising certain noble ideas in the Constitution and laying out point by point how America consistently not only betrays them, but deploys them rhetorically to obscure or advance its systematic cruelty as needed. Douglass and his contemporaries believed that the evil of slavery was intrinsic to America and its system of government, not some aberration. They didn't call the US the Slave Power for nothing.
So no, this speech is not a love letter to America, it's an indictment. And again, I think you know better, but the organization that employs you demands that you pretend otherwise.
I would urge you to re-read what I wrote. My essay makes the exact point that Douglass’ speech isn’t a love letter but an indictment. But the *reason* for the indictment, as he himself noted in the speech—both at the beginning and at the end—is hope: hope that America can live up to its promise, BECAUSE he believes in its founding principles. I’m not the one who cherry picks from that speech to suit my political agenda. My entire point, which I state very clearly in this essay, is that people on both the left and the right cherry pick from the speech and obscure his intentions.
And for the record, no one controls what I say or write. I write precisely what I think and believe, and FAIR has never demanded or even gently suggested that I do or say anything except what I think and believe.
Please explain. I really do not understand what you mean