Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas right from the start with the title shows that in 1852, 4th of July, Independance Day, was not a day that they should be very proud of. He shows this because INDEPENDANCE DAY, was meant to be a day to celebrate the freedom from Englands opression, and that everyone is a free man. But that is not the case for the black men and women, most of which were held as slaves at white males plantation farms. As he stated "Opression makes a wise man mad", which he pointed out the fathers of America who were victims of grievous wrongs. He knows what it means to be independant.

He points out how the fathers of America were great men. How they were brave enough to stand up for their independance from England. He goes on about the past of America and why the 4th of July, Independance day, should be a great holiday. Except for the fact that "the nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July!" Now that the Americans are free of opression from England, now they are doing relatively the samething to the blacks.

He points out the wrong doings by stating, " What am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of our liberty, to work the without wages......." He asks the audience/reader "if slavery is not divine: that God did not establish it" that our doctors of divinity are mistaken?" Frederick Douglas then goes on about the corruptiveness of judges during slave trade, on how they would recieve 10 dollars for every victim he cosigns to slavery.

I believe Frederick Douglas is right, that 4th of July was a black day in America up until everyone recieved equall rights. That the independance we fought for is deminished when we oppress minorities ourselves. If we belive America shold be the land of the free, and independant, then the blacks should not have been reduced to slaves, that we could beat, rape, and use to pick crops.