![]() In addition, the July 5th date had special importance for African Americans in New York. As Douglass emphasized, celebrating the July 4th Independence Day while millions of Black Americans were enslaved was the height of hypocrisy. The reason given for this date in an announcement in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, July 1, 1852, is that “ the 4th of July comes on Sunday,” but that was not the only reason. The July 5th date for the event, instead of the 4th, is significant. He provided ample evidence in support of his stance with searing descriptions of the horrors of American slavery, from the internal slave trade to the tyranny of the Fugitive Slave Act. “The Celebration at Corinthian Hall,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper (Rochester, N.Y.), July 9, 1852, p. You can find the full speech printed in Douglass’ own newspaper, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, July 9, 1852, beginning on page 2, six short paragraphs below the title, “ The Celebration at Corinthian Hall.” Following a deferential opening and acknowledgment of the bravery of those who led the country to independence, Douglass pointedly and repeatedly excluded himself and all Black Americans from celebrating that independence. ![]() There is value, though, in reading the entire text. The passages in the extract have been the ones generally quoted over the years. Those excerpts are mainly drawn from the ones Douglass himself chose to include in “ What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” as an “extract from an oration,” in My Bondage and My Freedom, his second autobiography, published in 1855. His powerful indictment of American slavery and racism, presented to a predominately white abolitionist audience, has resonated for 168 years, including in NPR’s recent video of five young descendants of Douglass reading excerpts from the speech. On July 5, 1852, eminent African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a brilliant speech to nearly six hundred people filling Rochester, New York’s Corinthian Hall, as organized by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. ![]() Frederick Douglass, engraving in “An Anti-Slavery Album of Contributions from Friends of Freedom, 1834–1858.” Manuscript Division.
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