What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? by Fredrick Douglass Book Analysis

📌Category: Books, Historical Figures, History, Slavery, Social Issues
📌Words: 707
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 16 February 2022

Fredrick Douglass was an abolitionist that had escaped slavery and was known for his antislavery writing and speeches. In this particular piece, What to the slave is the Fourth of July? By Fredrick Douglass, he talks about how the Fourth of July celebrates America’s freedom from British rule and the liberty and justice it has brought to Americans, more specifically white americans. Douglass goes on to say that he cannot share the happiness for this day and will instead mourn. As Douglass wrote this in 1852 so slavery was not yet abolished. Slaves do not have the same perspective as white Americans on the Fourth of July. To them this celebration of justice and liberty is cruel as they do not have freedom or justice, there is nothing for them to celebrate. Douglass states that everything that perpetuates slavery is “the great sin and the shame of America” (Douglass, pg. 8). In this piece Douglass also talks a lot about the church’s connection to slavery. He states that the church is indifferent to slavery and that the church actually sides with the opressors (Douglass, pg. 14).  Fredrick Douglass argues that America cannot proudly celebrate the Fourth of July and their country’s freedom because they have not acknowledged the atrocities of slavery, and that the church helps to uphold slavery and sides with the opressors. 

Douglass escaped slavery so he shares the trauma and pain that slaves all over America have felt, he understands their experieces. He went through the process of becoming a free man and of finally escaping the shackles of slavery. But he did not truly escape them, as America is a country built on systems of racism and oppression. Douglass mentions his experience as a slave and says that “to me the American slave-trade is a terrible reality...my soul was often pierced with a sense of it’s horrors' ' (Douglass, pg. 11). Douglass grew up in slavery and witnessed the atrocities that were committed. In another piece of writing Douglass has written, The Future of the Colored Race he discusses how slavery tears slaves down as people; “He stands before us, to-day, physically, a maimed and mutilated man...Slavery has twisted his limbs, shattered his feet, deformed his body and distorted his features. He remains black, but no longer comely” (Douglass, 1886). Slavery has disorted slaves perception of their idenity as they have been stripped of their culture, homes, language, and family. 

America dehumanizes slaves as a result of white supremacy.  Slaves are not viewed as people, but as tools of labour. Douglass states that slaves are “food for the cotton-field and the deadly sugar mill” (Douglass, pg. 11). Slaves being viewed as “food” and tools further adds to their dehumanization. This dehumanization allows for America to view slaves as “brutes” not as men. In the text Dehumanization, Essentialism, and Moral Psychology by David Livingstone Smith he gives an example of dehumanization using Africans and colonizers. The colonizers believed African slaves were “considered as less than human (they were “ranked with Brutes”) (Smith, 2014). The belief that slaves were not human goes back to even before they became slaves in America and is rooted in white supremacy.

The church plays a role in upholding and supporting slavery, when they have the power to abolish it.. Douglass claims that the church takes the side of oppressors; “the relation of master and slave is ordained of God '' (Douglass, pg. 14). So, not only does the church take the side of slavery, they’re also saying that it’s okay. Douglass argues that the church is guilty in not using their power to abolish slavery. He states that the church has “immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds” (Douglass, pg. 15). Essentially, if the church wanted to end slavery they could, but they choose not to.  In the text Slavery and the Church by William Hosmer he discusses slavery and Christianity’s beliefs about slavery. He states “if neither slaves nor slave-holders can be Christians, slavery can have no existence in the Church of Christ” (Hosmer, 1853). According to Hosmer because slaves are not viewed as people they cannot be christians, and because slavery is considered a sin, slave owners also cannot be christians (Hosmer, 1853).  

Finally, Douglass states that slaves do not share the same happiness for the Fourth of July that White Americans do, because America and the church has continued to uphold slavery and institutions of racism. Although Douglass wrote this piece in 1852, his points are still relevant today.

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