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What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass
July 5, 1852
(What follows is an abridged version. Abridged by Janet Gillespie, Director of Programming,
Community Change. The complete text may be found at: http://masshumanities.org/programs/douglass/)
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
…This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your
National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover
was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the
act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that
act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your
national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am
glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old
age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the
allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According
to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still
lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the
thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon.
…
…Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the associations that cluster
about this day. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the people of this country were
British subjects. The style and title of your "sovereign people" (in which you now glory)
was not then born. You were under the British Crown. Your fathers esteemed the English
Government as the home government; and England as the fatherland. This home
government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the
exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints,
burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper.
But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility
of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home
government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and
restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of
government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be
quietly submitted to. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those
measures fully accords with that of your fathers…Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly
treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit,
earnestly sought redress. They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous,
respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however, ...
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow CitizensHe who could address .docxrosemarybdodson23141
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable — and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer i.
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass.docxoreo10
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass
A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves
than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly
more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has
crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task
before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper
performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and
unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease,
my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in
addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present
occasion.
The papers and placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. This certainly
sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the
privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with
their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of
Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave
plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to he overcome in
getting from the latter to the former are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to
me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised,
if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any
high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to
throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and
generous indulgence I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birth day of your
National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover
was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the
act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that
act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your
national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. l am
glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old
age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the
allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According
to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still
lingering in the period of chi ...
Digital HistoryPrintable VersionThe Meaning of July FoAlyciaGold776
Digital History
Printable Version
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro
Digital History ID 3612
Author: Frederick Douglass
Date:1852
Annotation: On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was a piercing speech. During the first part
of his speech he praises what the founding fathers did for this country, but his speech soon develops into a
condemnation of the attitude of American society toward slavery.
Document: Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the
Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too ‹ great enough to give frame to a
great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The
point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot
contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the
good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....
...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or
those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of
natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon
to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for
the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these
questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a
nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not
thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell
the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that
man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included
within the pale of 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. The
sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty,
and call upon him to join you in ...
Journal Assignment 2
Journal Assignment
Fredrick Douglas’ “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro”
Background
In the early republic the annual Fourth of July oration was an important moment of commemoration, celebration, and reaffirmation in which Americans paid tribute to the heroes of the American Revolution and the ideals of American freedom and liberty. Citizens of all walks of life would gather together in their local communities to listen to orations delivered by
prominent statesmen
such as John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Horace Mann. A typical Fourth of July Oration would wax poetic about the virtues of America, often praising the Founders in grand terms and asking current Americans to live up to their
illustrious role models.
Former slave
Frederick Douglass’
July 5, 1852 oration “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” stands in stark contrast to the typical Fourth of July Oration. Not only did Douglass look different than the typical Fourth of July orator, but his message was very different. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not me,” Douglass told his audience. “The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes of death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” Throughout the speech Douglass compared and contrasted what the Fourth of July means to white Americans (freedom) and what it means to African-Americans (slavery) and concluded, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham.”
Douglass was already a famous abolitionist and speaker, but his fiery and dramatic calling out of American hypocrisy in his Fourth of July oration solidified his place as one of the greatest American orators of all time.
Directions
Answer the following questions:
Why did Douglas suggest by inviting him to speak on the Fourth of July the audience may have been mocking him?
Cite two examples of how the meaning of the Fourth of July differed for whites and African-American slaves?
What does Douglas mean by “stripes of death”?
How could Douglas have made such a speech yet still felt that the Constitution was a “glorious document” of liberty?
Speech
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too Ñ great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for,.
In the following packet and Reading the American Past you wijacmariek5
In the following packet and
Reading the American Past
you will find 5 documents, each written by colonists living in different times, at different places, and with different cultural backgrounds. However, all share similarities as they deal with European attitudes regarding Native Americans. For the purpose of this essay, your task, in 3-4 pages (double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman), is to search for and analyze the common themes that appear in all 5 documents. How do attitudes towards Native Americans vary by culture and region? How do colonists propose dealing with Indians? What role does religion play in shaping these attitudes? Finally, what place do these documents envisage for Native Americans in colonial society?
Requerimiento, 1514
This document was required to be read aloud to natives by Spanish Conquistadors before engaging in any act of conquest. Often times this was done without translation into the local dialect.
On behalf of the king and the queen, subjugators of barbarous peoples, we, their servants, notify and make known to you as best we are able, that God, Our Lord, living and eternal, created the heavens and the earth, and a man and a woman, of whom you and we and all other people of the world were, and are, the descendants. Because of the great numbers of people who have come from the union of these two in the five thousand year, which have run their course since the world was created, it became necessary that some should go in one direction and that others should go in another. Thus they became divided into many kingdoms and many provinces, since they could not all remain or sustain themselves in one place.
Of all these people God, Our Lord, chose one, who was called Saint Peter, to be the lord and the one who was to be superior to all the other people of the world, whom all should obey. He was to be the head of the entire human race, wherever men might exist. God gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. God also permitted him to be and establish himself in any other part of the world to judge and govern all peoples, whether Christian, Moors, Jew, Gentiles, or those of any other sects and beliefs that there might be. He was called the Pope. One of the past Popes who succeeded Saint Peter, as Lord of the Earth gave these islands and Mainland's of the Ocean Sea [the Atlantic Ocean] to the said King and Queen and to their successors, with everything that there is in them, as is set forth in certain documents which were drawn up regarding this donation in the manner described, which you may see if you so desire.
In consequence, Their Highnesses are Kings and Lords of these islands and mainland by virtue of said donation. Certain other isles and almost all [the native peoples] to whom this summons has been read have accepted Their Highnesses as such Kings and Lords, and have served, and serve, them as their subjects as they should, and must, do, with good will and without offering any resistance. You ...
First Written AssignmentIn the following packet and ReadinAlysonDuongtw
First Written Assignment
In the following packet and
Reading the American Past
you will find 5 documents, each written by colonists living in different times, at different places, and with different cultural backgrounds. However, all share similarities as they deal with European attitudes regarding Native Americans. For the purpose of this essay, your task, in 3-4 pages (double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman), is to search for and analyze the common themes that appear in all 5 documents. How do attitudes towards Native Americans vary by culture and region? How do colonists propose dealing with Indians? What role does religion play in shaping these attitudes? Finally, what place do these documents envisage for Native Americans in colonial society?
Requerimiento, 1514
This document was required to be read aloud to natives by Spanish Conquistadors before engaging in any act of conquest. Often times this was done without translation into the local dialect.
On behalf of the king and the queen, subjugators of barbarous peoples, we, their servants, notify and make known to you as best we are able, that God, Our Lord, living and eternal, created the heavens and the earth, and a man and a woman, of whom you and we and all other people of the world were, and are, the descendants. Because of the great numbers of people who have come from the union of these two in the five thousand year, which have run their course since the world was created, it became necessary that some should go in one direction and that others should go in another. Thus they became divided into many kingdoms and many provinces, since they could not all remain or sustain themselves in one place.
Of all these people God, Our Lord, chose one, who was called Saint Peter, to be the lord and the one who was to be superior to all the other people of the world, whom all should obey. He was to be the head of the entire human race, wherever men might exist. God gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. God also permitted him to be and establish himself in any other part of the world to judge and govern all peoples, whether Christian, Moors, Jew, Gentiles, or those of any other sects and beliefs that there might be. He was called the Pope. One of the past Popes who succeeded Saint Peter, as Lord of the Earth gave these islands and Mainland's of the Ocean Sea [the Atlantic Ocean] to the said King and Queen and to their successors, with everything that there is in them, as is set forth in certain documents which were drawn up regarding this donation in the manner described, which you may see if you so desire.
In consequence, Their Highnesses are Kings and Lords of these islands and mainland by virtue of said donation. Certain other isles and almost all [the native peoples] to whom this summons has been read have accepted Their Highnesses as such Kings and Lords, and have served, and serve, them as their subjects as they should, and must, do, with good will and without off ...
Collected Works Abraham Lincoln (1862) ACS Colonization Plan to South AmericaKen Williams
Lincoln in 1862 had the backing of Congress to emigrate free blacks to South America. Congress also approved $600,000 to give southern white slave owners reparations for the loss of so-called property in the emigration plan. Freed Africans born in the US rejected Lincoln's proposal to emigrate. The Fed gov't relaxed the Militia Act Law and Africans w/o citizenship joined the Union Army to defeat the south secession plan from the Union.
6-2 Adams, Correspondence 145 15. That a General and equal.docxpriestmanmable
6-2 Adams, Correspondence 145
15. That a General and equal land tax be laid throughout the State.
16. That people shall be taxed according to their estates.
17. That sheriff, clerk and register shall be chosen by the freeholders in every
county, the register to continue in office during good behaviour, the sheriff
to be elected every year. The same person to be capable to be elected every
year if all moneys due by virtue of his office shall be faithfully paid up.
18. That men shall be quieted in their titles and possessions and that provision
shall be made to secure men from being disturbed by old and foreign claims
against their landed possessions.
READinG AnD DiScuSSion QuESTionS
1. How would you summarize the type of government that the delegates were
instructed to support? Why do you think the citizens of Mecklenburg County
wanted the kind of government they described?
2. Did any of the instructions to delegates surprise you? How might you explain,
for instance, the instructions related to questions of religion?
6-2 | A call to “Remember the Ladies”
AbigAil And John AdAms, Correspondence (1776)
Just as the citizens of Mecklenburg County instructed their delegates on which rights to
demand, Abigail Adams sent similar instructions to her husband, John, then serving at the
Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. John was pivotal in moving the dele-
gates to declare independence, and the couple’s wonderfully rich letters provide a window
into the buildup to that historic moment. In addition to the personal hardships they endured
during the Revolutionary period, the letters reveal the lively discussions John and Abigail
shared over the place of women in the emerging republic. Abigail did not miss the opportu-
nity to lobby for her sex, and in one letter, reproduced here, she famously instructs her hus-
band to “remember the ladies” as he and his fellow delegates contemplate laws for the newly
independent states.
Abigail Adams to John Adams
Braintree, 31 March, 1776.
I wish you would ever write me a letter half as long as I write you; and tell me if
you may where your fleet are gone? What sort of defense Virginia can make
against our common enemy; whether it is so situated as to make an able defense.
Are not the gentry lords and the common people vassals, are they not like the
uncivilized vassals Britain represents us to be? I hope their riflemen, who have
shown themselves very savage and even blood-thirsty, are not a specimen of the
Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the
Revolution (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1875), 148–155, 158–159.
FPP FPP
06_SHE_45762_ch06_140_163_r2wt.indd 145 10/12/13 10:43 AM
146 PART 3 / Chapter 6 Making War and Republican Governments, 1776–1789
generality of the people. I am willing to allow the colony great merit for having
produced a Washington; but they have been shamefully duped by a Dunmor.
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow CitizensHe who could address .docxrosemarybdodson23141
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable — and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer i.
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass.docxoreo10
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass
A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves
than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly
more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has
crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task
before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper
performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and
unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease,
my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in
addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present
occasion.
The papers and placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. This certainly
sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the
privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with
their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of
Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment.
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave
plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to he overcome in
getting from the latter to the former are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to
me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised,
if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any
high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to
throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and
generous indulgence I will proceed to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birth day of your
National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover
was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the
act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that
act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your
national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. l am
glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old
age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the
allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According
to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still
lingering in the period of chi ...
Digital HistoryPrintable VersionThe Meaning of July FoAlyciaGold776
Digital History
Printable Version
The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro
Digital History ID 3612
Author: Frederick Douglass
Date:1852
Annotation: On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. It was a piercing speech. During the first part
of his speech he praises what the founding fathers did for this country, but his speech soon develops into a
condemnation of the attitude of American society toward slavery.
Document: Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the
Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too ‹ great enough to give frame to a
great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The
point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot
contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the
good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....
...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or
those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of
natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon
to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for
the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these
questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a
nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not
thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell
the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that
man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."
But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included
within the pale of 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. The
sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty,
and call upon him to join you in ...
Journal Assignment 2
Journal Assignment
Fredrick Douglas’ “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro”
Background
In the early republic the annual Fourth of July oration was an important moment of commemoration, celebration, and reaffirmation in which Americans paid tribute to the heroes of the American Revolution and the ideals of American freedom and liberty. Citizens of all walks of life would gather together in their local communities to listen to orations delivered by
prominent statesmen
such as John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Horace Mann. A typical Fourth of July Oration would wax poetic about the virtues of America, often praising the Founders in grand terms and asking current Americans to live up to their
illustrious role models.
Former slave
Frederick Douglass’
July 5, 1852 oration “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” stands in stark contrast to the typical Fourth of July Oration. Not only did Douglass look different than the typical Fourth of July orator, but his message was very different. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not me,” Douglass told his audience. “The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes of death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” Throughout the speech Douglass compared and contrasted what the Fourth of July means to white Americans (freedom) and what it means to African-Americans (slavery) and concluded, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham.”
Douglass was already a famous abolitionist and speaker, but his fiery and dramatic calling out of American hypocrisy in his Fourth of July oration solidified his place as one of the greatest American orators of all time.
Directions
Answer the following questions:
Why did Douglas suggest by inviting him to speak on the Fourth of July the audience may have been mocking him?
Cite two examples of how the meaning of the Fourth of July differed for whites and African-American slaves?
What does Douglas mean by “stripes of death”?
How could Douglas have made such a speech yet still felt that the Constitution was a “glorious document” of liberty?
Speech
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too Ñ great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for,.
In the following packet and Reading the American Past you wijacmariek5
In the following packet and
Reading the American Past
you will find 5 documents, each written by colonists living in different times, at different places, and with different cultural backgrounds. However, all share similarities as they deal with European attitudes regarding Native Americans. For the purpose of this essay, your task, in 3-4 pages (double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman), is to search for and analyze the common themes that appear in all 5 documents. How do attitudes towards Native Americans vary by culture and region? How do colonists propose dealing with Indians? What role does religion play in shaping these attitudes? Finally, what place do these documents envisage for Native Americans in colonial society?
Requerimiento, 1514
This document was required to be read aloud to natives by Spanish Conquistadors before engaging in any act of conquest. Often times this was done without translation into the local dialect.
On behalf of the king and the queen, subjugators of barbarous peoples, we, their servants, notify and make known to you as best we are able, that God, Our Lord, living and eternal, created the heavens and the earth, and a man and a woman, of whom you and we and all other people of the world were, and are, the descendants. Because of the great numbers of people who have come from the union of these two in the five thousand year, which have run their course since the world was created, it became necessary that some should go in one direction and that others should go in another. Thus they became divided into many kingdoms and many provinces, since they could not all remain or sustain themselves in one place.
Of all these people God, Our Lord, chose one, who was called Saint Peter, to be the lord and the one who was to be superior to all the other people of the world, whom all should obey. He was to be the head of the entire human race, wherever men might exist. God gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. God also permitted him to be and establish himself in any other part of the world to judge and govern all peoples, whether Christian, Moors, Jew, Gentiles, or those of any other sects and beliefs that there might be. He was called the Pope. One of the past Popes who succeeded Saint Peter, as Lord of the Earth gave these islands and Mainland's of the Ocean Sea [the Atlantic Ocean] to the said King and Queen and to their successors, with everything that there is in them, as is set forth in certain documents which were drawn up regarding this donation in the manner described, which you may see if you so desire.
In consequence, Their Highnesses are Kings and Lords of these islands and mainland by virtue of said donation. Certain other isles and almost all [the native peoples] to whom this summons has been read have accepted Their Highnesses as such Kings and Lords, and have served, and serve, them as their subjects as they should, and must, do, with good will and without offering any resistance. You ...
First Written AssignmentIn the following packet and ReadinAlysonDuongtw
First Written Assignment
In the following packet and
Reading the American Past
you will find 5 documents, each written by colonists living in different times, at different places, and with different cultural backgrounds. However, all share similarities as they deal with European attitudes regarding Native Americans. For the purpose of this essay, your task, in 3-4 pages (double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman), is to search for and analyze the common themes that appear in all 5 documents. How do attitudes towards Native Americans vary by culture and region? How do colonists propose dealing with Indians? What role does religion play in shaping these attitudes? Finally, what place do these documents envisage for Native Americans in colonial society?
Requerimiento, 1514
This document was required to be read aloud to natives by Spanish Conquistadors before engaging in any act of conquest. Often times this was done without translation into the local dialect.
On behalf of the king and the queen, subjugators of barbarous peoples, we, their servants, notify and make known to you as best we are able, that God, Our Lord, living and eternal, created the heavens and the earth, and a man and a woman, of whom you and we and all other people of the world were, and are, the descendants. Because of the great numbers of people who have come from the union of these two in the five thousand year, which have run their course since the world was created, it became necessary that some should go in one direction and that others should go in another. Thus they became divided into many kingdoms and many provinces, since they could not all remain or sustain themselves in one place.
Of all these people God, Our Lord, chose one, who was called Saint Peter, to be the lord and the one who was to be superior to all the other people of the world, whom all should obey. He was to be the head of the entire human race, wherever men might exist. God gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. God also permitted him to be and establish himself in any other part of the world to judge and govern all peoples, whether Christian, Moors, Jew, Gentiles, or those of any other sects and beliefs that there might be. He was called the Pope. One of the past Popes who succeeded Saint Peter, as Lord of the Earth gave these islands and Mainland's of the Ocean Sea [the Atlantic Ocean] to the said King and Queen and to their successors, with everything that there is in them, as is set forth in certain documents which were drawn up regarding this donation in the manner described, which you may see if you so desire.
In consequence, Their Highnesses are Kings and Lords of these islands and mainland by virtue of said donation. Certain other isles and almost all [the native peoples] to whom this summons has been read have accepted Their Highnesses as such Kings and Lords, and have served, and serve, them as their subjects as they should, and must, do, with good will and without off ...
Collected Works Abraham Lincoln (1862) ACS Colonization Plan to South AmericaKen Williams
Lincoln in 1862 had the backing of Congress to emigrate free blacks to South America. Congress also approved $600,000 to give southern white slave owners reparations for the loss of so-called property in the emigration plan. Freed Africans born in the US rejected Lincoln's proposal to emigrate. The Fed gov't relaxed the Militia Act Law and Africans w/o citizenship joined the Union Army to defeat the south secession plan from the Union.
6-2 Adams, Correspondence 145 15. That a General and equal.docxpriestmanmable
6-2 Adams, Correspondence 145
15. That a General and equal land tax be laid throughout the State.
16. That people shall be taxed according to their estates.
17. That sheriff, clerk and register shall be chosen by the freeholders in every
county, the register to continue in office during good behaviour, the sheriff
to be elected every year. The same person to be capable to be elected every
year if all moneys due by virtue of his office shall be faithfully paid up.
18. That men shall be quieted in their titles and possessions and that provision
shall be made to secure men from being disturbed by old and foreign claims
against their landed possessions.
READinG AnD DiScuSSion QuESTionS
1. How would you summarize the type of government that the delegates were
instructed to support? Why do you think the citizens of Mecklenburg County
wanted the kind of government they described?
2. Did any of the instructions to delegates surprise you? How might you explain,
for instance, the instructions related to questions of religion?
6-2 | A call to “Remember the Ladies”
AbigAil And John AdAms, Correspondence (1776)
Just as the citizens of Mecklenburg County instructed their delegates on which rights to
demand, Abigail Adams sent similar instructions to her husband, John, then serving at the
Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. John was pivotal in moving the dele-
gates to declare independence, and the couple’s wonderfully rich letters provide a window
into the buildup to that historic moment. In addition to the personal hardships they endured
during the Revolutionary period, the letters reveal the lively discussions John and Abigail
shared over the place of women in the emerging republic. Abigail did not miss the opportu-
nity to lobby for her sex, and in one letter, reproduced here, she famously instructs her hus-
band to “remember the ladies” as he and his fellow delegates contemplate laws for the newly
independent states.
Abigail Adams to John Adams
Braintree, 31 March, 1776.
I wish you would ever write me a letter half as long as I write you; and tell me if
you may where your fleet are gone? What sort of defense Virginia can make
against our common enemy; whether it is so situated as to make an able defense.
Are not the gentry lords and the common people vassals, are they not like the
uncivilized vassals Britain represents us to be? I hope their riflemen, who have
shown themselves very savage and even blood-thirsty, are not a specimen of the
Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the
Revolution (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1875), 148–155, 158–159.
FPP FPP
06_SHE_45762_ch06_140_163_r2wt.indd 145 10/12/13 10:43 AM
146 PART 3 / Chapter 6 Making War and Republican Governments, 1776–1789
generality of the people. I am willing to allow the colony great merit for having
produced a Washington; but they have been shamefully duped by a Dunmor.
Collection 6.1Angelina Grimke, Appeal to the Christian Women of.docxmonicafrancis71118
Collection 6.1
Angelina Grimke, "Appeal to the Christian Women of the South" (1836) "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:-and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, I perish." Esther IV. 13-16. Respected Friends, It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which bound us together as members of the same community, and members of the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and I ask you now, for the sake of former confidence, and former friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, that I write thus unto you. But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never heard my name, and who feel no interest whatever in me. But I feel an interest in you, as branches of the same vine from whose root I daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality-Yes! Sisters in Christ I feel an interest in you, and often has the secret prayer arisen on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous things out of thy Law"-It is then, because I do feel and do pray for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all others, perhaps you would rather not hear anything; but, "would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid then to read my appeal; it is not written in the heat of passion or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome truths, but I mean to speak those truths in love, and remember Solomon says, "faithful are the wounds of a friend." I do not believe the time has yet come when Christian women "will not endure sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address you... ...But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to women on this subject? We do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. No legislative power is vested in us; we c.
AMH2092 OER African American History and Culture Module 4 .docxdaniahendric
AMH2092 OER: African American History and Culture
Module 4: Primary Resource Document
Freedom Petition of Prince Hall
Source Overview: This freedom petition from 1777 was presented to the Massachusetts General
Court by Prince Hall, a free black man who lived in Boston, along with nine other black
petitioners. Hall is also known for founding the first black freemasonry lodge in American
history during the revolutionary era.(1)
To the Honorable Counsel & House of Representatives for the State of Massachusetts Bay in
General Court assembled, January 13, 1777.
The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of slavery in the bowels
of a free & Christian Country Humbly showeth that your Petitioners apprehend that they have in
Common with all other men a Natural and [Unalienable] Right to that freedom which the Grat
Parent of the Universe that Bestowed equally on all menkind and which they have Never
forfeited by any Compact or agreement whatever — but that wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand
of cruel Power and their Derest friends and sum of them Even torn from the Embraces of their
tender Parents — from A populous Pleasant and Plentiful country and in violation of Laws of
Nature and of Nations and in Defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity Brough here Either
to Be sold like Beast of burthen & Like them Condemned to Slavery for Life — Among A
People Professing the mild Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of Rational
Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavors of others to Reduce them to a state of
Bondage and Subjugation your hononuer Need not to be informed that A Live of Slavery Like
that of your petitioners Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requisite and render
Life Tolable is far worse that Nonexistance.
[In imitat]ion of the Lawdable Example of the Good People of these States your
petitioners have Long and Patiently waited the Event of petition after petition. By them presented
to the Legislative Body of this state and cannot but with Grief Reflect that their Success hath
been but too similar they Cannot but express their Astonishment that It have Never Bin
Considered that Every Principle from which America has Acted in the Course of their unhappy
Difficulties with Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand arguments in favors of your
petitioners they therfor humble Beseech your honours to give this petition its due weight and
consideration & cause an act of the legislature to be past Wherby they may be Restored to the
Enjoyments of that which is the Natural right of all men — and their Children who wher Born in
this Land of Liberty may not be held as Slaves after they arrive at the age of twenty one years so
may the Inhabitance of this States No longer chargeable with the inconstancy of acting
themselves that part which they condemn and oppose in others Be prospered in th ...
J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, What Is an American (1782)I wi.docxpriestmanmable
J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, "What Is an American?" (1782)
I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent. He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country discovered and settled; he must necessarily feel a share of national pride, when he views the chain of settlements which embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my countryment, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here. They brought along with them their national genius, to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy, and what substance they possess. Here he sees the industry of his native country displayed in a new manner, and traces in their works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and ingenuity which flourish in Europe. Here he beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields, an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years ago all was wild, woody, and uncultivated! What a train of pleasing ideas this fair spectacle must suggest; it is a prospect which must inspire a good citizen with the most heartfelt pleasure. The difficulty consists in the manner of viewing so extensive a scene. He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one, no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe. Some few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are equitable. We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself. If he travels through our rural districts he views not the hostile castle, and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and miserable cabin, where cattle and men help to keep each other warm, and dwell in meanness, smoke, and indigence. A pleasing uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest titles our towns afford; that of a farmer is the only appellation of the rural in ...
Patrick Henry’s Speech No man thinks more highly than I do of.docxherbertwilson5999
Patrick Henry’s Speech:
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.??Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.??I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received???Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort.??I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: t.
Document A
The Cherokee Constitution of 1827
We the Representatives of the people of the Cherokee Nation, in Convention
assembled in order to establish justice ensure tranquility, promote our common welfare,
and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with
humility and gratitude the goodness of the sovereign ruler of the Universe affording us an
opportunity so favorable to the design and imploring his aid and direction in its
accomplishments do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Government of the
Cherokee Nation….
Religion, Morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the
preservation of liberty and the happiness of mankind schools and the means of education,
shall forever, be encouraged in this nation….
All Laws in force in this nation at the passing of this constitution shall so continue
until altered or repealed by the Legislature except when they are temporary in which case
they shall expire at the times respectively limited for their duration if not continued by
acts of the Legislature….
Document B
Success of the “Civilizing” Project Among the Cherokee
Written by Chief John Ridge in 1826
The Cherokee Nation is bounded on the North by East Tennessee & North
Carolina, east by Georgia, south by the Creek Nation and State of Alabama___and west
by Tennessee… There are a few instances of African Mixture with Cherokee blood &
wherever it is seen is considered in the light of misfortune & disgrace but that of the
white may be as 1 to 4___occasioned by intermarriage which has been increasingly in
proportion to the march of civilization… In view of their location it readily appears that
they are farmers and herdsmen,…
Our Country is well adapted for the growth of Indian Corn, wheat, Rye, Oats,
Irish and Sweet Potatoes, which are cultivated by our people…
Cherokees on the Tennessee River already commenced to trade in Cotton and
grow it on large plantations for which they have experienced flattering profit. Preparation
is making by all those in good circumstances, to cultivate the Cotton for market which
will soon be a Staple commodity of traffic for the Nation…
The tide of white population was advancing on all sides & the Indians poor in
goods, but well supplied with the vices of their neighbors were retreating to a given point
where they would eventually be crushed in the folds of the encroaching Serpent!...
About the year 1795 missionaries were sent by… Gen. Washington who from the
Indian Testimony itself laboured indefatigably to induce the Indians to lead a domestic
life… Here they were first taught to sing and pray to their Creator, and here Gospel
Worship was first established in our nation…
It was for Strangers to effect this, and necessity now compels the last remant to
look for it for protection. It is true, we enjoy self Government, but we live in fear,…
Strangers urge our remova.
1. A clear, complete thesis that is consistently supported by evidTatianaMajor22
1. A clear, complete thesis that is consistently supported by evidence/details from Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and the secondary sources throughout the essay. The thesis should not be contradicted by major details of the story or explanations/arguments from the secondary sources.
2. A framework for your analysis that is one of the frameworks we've covered or a combination of multiple frameworks.
3. An original title that is appealing and accurately reflecting the topic, point, and/or purpose of the essay.
4. An introduction that effectively introduces your topic in a compelling way for your reader, and a conclusion that wraps up your argument and its broader implications for your reader.
5. Paragraphs that focus on specific topics necessary for the development of your thesis and that build logically and fluidly toward the conclusion for the most part.
6. Consistent and correct documentation of sources using MLA format (though if you're not an English major and want to practice a different format, that's fine too, just make sure you do it correctly and consistently throughout, or you'll have to revise it).
I HAVE A DREAM
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the
history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation
Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been
seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today
to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every
American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be
guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has
defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred
obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient f ...
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise .docxjackiewalcutt
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta
Compromise Speech
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens:
Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress.
Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top
instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or
industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy
farm or truck garden.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate
vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once
came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us
water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.”
And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The
captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of
fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering
their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations
with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket
where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom
we are surrounded.
Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in
this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it
comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the
commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our
greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses
of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in
proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common
occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the
substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is
as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at
the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and
habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat.
“ Which were born, not of human decent, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." —
John 1 : 13.
IN these words John deals with the sources
of character. "Christ," he says, "came
unto his own, and his own received him
not. But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name. ' ' Four
sources or springs of character, four grounds
of expectation of human development, are
put here in contrast.
William Bradford, from History of Plimouth POllieShoresna
William Bradford, from
History of Plimouth Plantation (written between 1630-51)
AFTER they had lived in this city [Leyden, in the Netherlands] about some 11 or 12 years… and sundry of them were taken away by death, and many others began to be well stricken in years…. those prudent governors with sundry of the sagest members began both deeply to apprehend their present dangers, and wisely to foresee the future, and think of timely remedy. In the agitation of their thoughts, and much discourse of things hear about, at length they began to incline to this conclusion, of removal to some other place. Not out of any newfangledness, or other such like giddy humor, by which men are oftentimes transported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundry weighty and solid reasons….
Of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in that country, and the manifold temptations of the
place, were drawn away by evil examples to extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reigns off their necks, and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took upon them far voyages by sea, and other some worse courses, tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and dishonor of God. So that they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted.
Lastly, (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work. These, and some other like reasons, moved them to undertake this
resolution of their removal….
The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, whether are only salvage and brutish men, which range up and down, little otherwise then the wild beasts of the same….
It was answered, that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though there were many of them likely, yet they were not certain; it might be sundry of the things feared might never befall; others by provident care and the use of good
means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome… there ends were good and honorable; their calling lawful, and urgent; and therefore they might expect the blessing of God in their proceeding....
Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before ...
Resources Assigned readings, ERRs, the Internet,and other resources.docxkarlhennesey
Resources: Assigned readings, ERRs, the Internet,and other resources
Write
a no more than 3 page paper, in which you identify a total compensation plan for an organization focused on internal equity, and a total compensation plan for an organization focused on external equity.
Identify
advantages and disadvantages of internal and external equity for the organizations.
Explain
how each plan supports that organization's total compensation objective and the relationship of the organization's financial situation to its plan.
Draw conclusions based upon Electronic Reserve Readings in eCampus
, Martocchio (2009) and/or Milkovich and Newman (2008),
personal experience, and data collected from organizations.
Integrate Week 2 readings
,
Martocchio (2009) and/or Milkovich and Newman (2008),
throughout paper.
Direct quotations should be avoided.
Research should be summarized and synthesized using your own words
; be certain to cite sources of knowledge.
Format
your paper consistent with
APA 6
th
Edition
guidelines.
.
Resource Review Documenting the Face of America Roy Stryker and.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Review "Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers," and Ch. 5 of
Oxford History of Art: Twentieth-Century American Art
.
Write
a 200- to 350-word summary responding to the following:
How was photography used as an instrument for social reform? What photograph do you think makes the most powerful social commentary? Why?
Submit
your assignment in a Microsoft
®
Word document using the Assignment Files tab above.
.
More Related Content
Similar to Page 1 of 15What to the Slave is the Fourth of July F.docx
Collection 6.1Angelina Grimke, Appeal to the Christian Women of.docxmonicafrancis71118
Collection 6.1
Angelina Grimke, "Appeal to the Christian Women of the South" (1836) "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:-and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, I perish." Esther IV. 13-16. Respected Friends, It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present and eternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Some of you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me in Christian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled by a strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union which bound us together as members of the same community, and members of the same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give me credit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had been most strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, and I ask you now, for the sake of former confidence, and former friendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calm investigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me, that I write thus unto you. But there are other Christian women scattered over the Southern States, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and never heard my name, and who feel no interest whatever in me. But I feel an interest in you, as branches of the same vine from whose root I daily draw the principle of spiritual vitality-Yes! Sisters in Christ I feel an interest in you, and often has the secret prayer arisen on your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrous things out of thy Law"-It is then, because I do feel and do pray for you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of all others, perhaps you would rather not hear anything; but, "would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraid then to read my appeal; it is not written in the heat of passion or prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result of conviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcome truths, but I mean to speak those truths in love, and remember Solomon says, "faithful are the wounds of a friend." I do not believe the time has yet come when Christian women "will not endure sound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken to them in tenderness and love, therefore I now address you... ...But perhaps you will be ready to query, why appeal to women on this subject? We do not make the laws which perpetuate slavery. No legislative power is vested in us; we c.
AMH2092 OER African American History and Culture Module 4 .docxdaniahendric
AMH2092 OER: African American History and Culture
Module 4: Primary Resource Document
Freedom Petition of Prince Hall
Source Overview: This freedom petition from 1777 was presented to the Massachusetts General
Court by Prince Hall, a free black man who lived in Boston, along with nine other black
petitioners. Hall is also known for founding the first black freemasonry lodge in American
history during the revolutionary era.(1)
To the Honorable Counsel & House of Representatives for the State of Massachusetts Bay in
General Court assembled, January 13, 1777.
The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of slavery in the bowels
of a free & Christian Country Humbly showeth that your Petitioners apprehend that they have in
Common with all other men a Natural and [Unalienable] Right to that freedom which the Grat
Parent of the Universe that Bestowed equally on all menkind and which they have Never
forfeited by any Compact or agreement whatever — but that wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand
of cruel Power and their Derest friends and sum of them Even torn from the Embraces of their
tender Parents — from A populous Pleasant and Plentiful country and in violation of Laws of
Nature and of Nations and in Defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity Brough here Either
to Be sold like Beast of burthen & Like them Condemned to Slavery for Life — Among A
People Professing the mild Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of Rational
Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavors of others to Reduce them to a state of
Bondage and Subjugation your hononuer Need not to be informed that A Live of Slavery Like
that of your petitioners Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requisite and render
Life Tolable is far worse that Nonexistance.
[In imitat]ion of the Lawdable Example of the Good People of these States your
petitioners have Long and Patiently waited the Event of petition after petition. By them presented
to the Legislative Body of this state and cannot but with Grief Reflect that their Success hath
been but too similar they Cannot but express their Astonishment that It have Never Bin
Considered that Every Principle from which America has Acted in the Course of their unhappy
Difficulties with Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand arguments in favors of your
petitioners they therfor humble Beseech your honours to give this petition its due weight and
consideration & cause an act of the legislature to be past Wherby they may be Restored to the
Enjoyments of that which is the Natural right of all men — and their Children who wher Born in
this Land of Liberty may not be held as Slaves after they arrive at the age of twenty one years so
may the Inhabitance of this States No longer chargeable with the inconstancy of acting
themselves that part which they condemn and oppose in others Be prospered in th ...
J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, What Is an American (1782)I wi.docxpriestmanmable
J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, "What Is an American?" (1782)
I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent. He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country discovered and settled; he must necessarily feel a share of national pride, when he views the chain of settlements which embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my countryment, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here. They brought along with them their national genius, to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy, and what substance they possess. Here he sees the industry of his native country displayed in a new manner, and traces in their works the embryos of all the arts, sciences, and ingenuity which flourish in Europe. Here he beholds fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields, an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years ago all was wild, woody, and uncultivated! What a train of pleasing ideas this fair spectacle must suggest; it is a prospect which must inspire a good citizen with the most heartfelt pleasure. The difficulty consists in the manner of viewing so extensive a scene. He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one, no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe. Some few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are equitable. We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself. If he travels through our rural districts he views not the hostile castle, and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and miserable cabin, where cattle and men help to keep each other warm, and dwell in meanness, smoke, and indigence. A pleasing uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest titles our towns afford; that of a farmer is the only appellation of the rural in ...
Patrick Henry’s Speech No man thinks more highly than I do of.docxherbertwilson5999
Patrick Henry’s Speech:
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.??Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.??I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received???Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort.??I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: t.
Document A
The Cherokee Constitution of 1827
We the Representatives of the people of the Cherokee Nation, in Convention
assembled in order to establish justice ensure tranquility, promote our common welfare,
and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty, acknowledging with
humility and gratitude the goodness of the sovereign ruler of the Universe affording us an
opportunity so favorable to the design and imploring his aid and direction in its
accomplishments do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Government of the
Cherokee Nation….
Religion, Morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the
preservation of liberty and the happiness of mankind schools and the means of education,
shall forever, be encouraged in this nation….
All Laws in force in this nation at the passing of this constitution shall so continue
until altered or repealed by the Legislature except when they are temporary in which case
they shall expire at the times respectively limited for their duration if not continued by
acts of the Legislature….
Document B
Success of the “Civilizing” Project Among the Cherokee
Written by Chief John Ridge in 1826
The Cherokee Nation is bounded on the North by East Tennessee & North
Carolina, east by Georgia, south by the Creek Nation and State of Alabama___and west
by Tennessee… There are a few instances of African Mixture with Cherokee blood &
wherever it is seen is considered in the light of misfortune & disgrace but that of the
white may be as 1 to 4___occasioned by intermarriage which has been increasingly in
proportion to the march of civilization… In view of their location it readily appears that
they are farmers and herdsmen,…
Our Country is well adapted for the growth of Indian Corn, wheat, Rye, Oats,
Irish and Sweet Potatoes, which are cultivated by our people…
Cherokees on the Tennessee River already commenced to trade in Cotton and
grow it on large plantations for which they have experienced flattering profit. Preparation
is making by all those in good circumstances, to cultivate the Cotton for market which
will soon be a Staple commodity of traffic for the Nation…
The tide of white population was advancing on all sides & the Indians poor in
goods, but well supplied with the vices of their neighbors were retreating to a given point
where they would eventually be crushed in the folds of the encroaching Serpent!...
About the year 1795 missionaries were sent by… Gen. Washington who from the
Indian Testimony itself laboured indefatigably to induce the Indians to lead a domestic
life… Here they were first taught to sing and pray to their Creator, and here Gospel
Worship was first established in our nation…
It was for Strangers to effect this, and necessity now compels the last remant to
look for it for protection. It is true, we enjoy self Government, but we live in fear,…
Strangers urge our remova.
1. A clear, complete thesis that is consistently supported by evidTatianaMajor22
1. A clear, complete thesis that is consistently supported by evidence/details from Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and the secondary sources throughout the essay. The thesis should not be contradicted by major details of the story or explanations/arguments from the secondary sources.
2. A framework for your analysis that is one of the frameworks we've covered or a combination of multiple frameworks.
3. An original title that is appealing and accurately reflecting the topic, point, and/or purpose of the essay.
4. An introduction that effectively introduces your topic in a compelling way for your reader, and a conclusion that wraps up your argument and its broader implications for your reader.
5. Paragraphs that focus on specific topics necessary for the development of your thesis and that build logically and fluidly toward the conclusion for the most part.
6. Consistent and correct documentation of sources using MLA format (though if you're not an English major and want to practice a different format, that's fine too, just make sure you do it correctly and consistently throughout, or you'll have to revise it).
I HAVE A DREAM
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the
history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation
Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been
seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly
crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a
lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today
to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent
words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every
American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be
guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has
defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred
obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient f ...
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise .docxjackiewalcutt
Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta
Compromise Speech
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens:
Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress.
Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top
instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or
industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy
farm or truck garden.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate
vessel was seen a signal,“Water, water; we die of thirst!” The answer from the friendly vessel at once
came back, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time the signal, “Water, water; send us
water!” ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.”
And a third and fourth signal for water was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The
captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of
fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend on bettering
their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations
with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket
where you are”— cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom
we are surrounded.
Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in
this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it
comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is given a man’s chance in the
commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our
greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses
of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in
proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour, and put brains and skill into the common
occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the
substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is
as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at
the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.
To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and
habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat.
“ Which were born, not of human decent, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." —
John 1 : 13.
IN these words John deals with the sources
of character. "Christ," he says, "came
unto his own, and his own received him
not. But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name. ' ' Four
sources or springs of character, four grounds
of expectation of human development, are
put here in contrast.
William Bradford, from History of Plimouth POllieShoresna
William Bradford, from
History of Plimouth Plantation (written between 1630-51)
AFTER they had lived in this city [Leyden, in the Netherlands] about some 11 or 12 years… and sundry of them were taken away by death, and many others began to be well stricken in years…. those prudent governors with sundry of the sagest members began both deeply to apprehend their present dangers, and wisely to foresee the future, and think of timely remedy. In the agitation of their thoughts, and much discourse of things hear about, at length they began to incline to this conclusion, of removal to some other place. Not out of any newfangledness, or other such like giddy humor, by which men are oftentimes transported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundry weighty and solid reasons….
Of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in that country, and the manifold temptations of the
place, were drawn away by evil examples to extravagant and dangerous courses, getting the reigns off their necks, and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took upon them far voyages by sea, and other some worse courses, tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of their parents and dishonor of God. So that they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted.
Lastly, (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work. These, and some other like reasons, moved them to undertake this
resolution of their removal….
The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, whether are only salvage and brutish men, which range up and down, little otherwise then the wild beasts of the same….
It was answered, that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though there were many of them likely, yet they were not certain; it might be sundry of the things feared might never befall; others by provident care and the use of good
means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome… there ends were good and honorable; their calling lawful, and urgent; and therefore they might expect the blessing of God in their proceeding....
Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before ...
Resources Assigned readings, ERRs, the Internet,and other resources.docxkarlhennesey
Resources: Assigned readings, ERRs, the Internet,and other resources
Write
a no more than 3 page paper, in which you identify a total compensation plan for an organization focused on internal equity, and a total compensation plan for an organization focused on external equity.
Identify
advantages and disadvantages of internal and external equity for the organizations.
Explain
how each plan supports that organization's total compensation objective and the relationship of the organization's financial situation to its plan.
Draw conclusions based upon Electronic Reserve Readings in eCampus
, Martocchio (2009) and/or Milkovich and Newman (2008),
personal experience, and data collected from organizations.
Integrate Week 2 readings
,
Martocchio (2009) and/or Milkovich and Newman (2008),
throughout paper.
Direct quotations should be avoided.
Research should be summarized and synthesized using your own words
; be certain to cite sources of knowledge.
Format
your paper consistent with
APA 6
th
Edition
guidelines.
.
Resource Review Documenting the Face of America Roy Stryker and.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Review "Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers," and Ch. 5 of
Oxford History of Art: Twentieth-Century American Art
.
Write
a 200- to 350-word summary responding to the following:
How was photography used as an instrument for social reform? What photograph do you think makes the most powerful social commentary? Why?
Submit
your assignment in a Microsoft
®
Word document using the Assignment Files tab above.
.
Resource Review Thelma Golden--How Art Gives Shape to Cultural C.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Review "Thelma Golden--How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change," Ch. 9 and 11 of
Oxford History of Art: Twentieth-Century American Art
, and the Week Five Electronic Reserve Readings.
Write
a 200- to 350-word summary responding to the following:
How has art, in the context of the social justice movements of the twentieth century, challenged, and shaped American society?
Submit
in a Microsoft
®
Word document using the Assignment Files tab above
.
Resource Review Representational Cityscape, and Ch. 3 of Oxfo.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Review "Representational Cityscape," and Ch. 3 of
Oxford History of Art: Twentieth-Century American Art
Write
a 200- to 350-word summary responding to and discussing the following:
The work of Joseph Stella and other early American modernists, such as Marsden Hartley, Max Weber, and Georgia O'Keeffe and how they differed greatly in subject and style to the work of the Ashcan School, and include the following:
Where did this abstract style originate? Describe at least one art work in your summary.
Choose one art form or cultural development that originated elsewhere but which is currently a part of American culture.
Describe how this art form has directly affected you.
Submit
your assignment in a Microsoft
®
Word document using the Assignment Files tab above.
.
Resource Part 2 of Terrorism TodayYou work on a national se.docxkarlhennesey
Resource
: Part 2 of
Terrorism Today
You work on a national security team of intelligence analysts and you have been asked to give a threat analysis presentation to intelligence agents who are assigned to work in various regions around the world. Your small team is assigned to present on one region specifically.
Select
one of the following eleven regions:
The Persian Gulf
Create
a 2 slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation with
detailed speaker notes
. Use complete sentences, with correct grammar and punctuation, to fully explain each slide as if you were giving an in-person presentation.
Address
the following in your presentation:
Explain the purpose of counterterrorism analysis
Format
your presentation following APA guidelines.
.
Resources Appendix A, The Home Depot, Inc. Annual Report in Fun.docxkarlhennesey
Resources:
Appendix A, The Home Depot, Inc. Annual Report in
Fundamentals of Financial Accounting
Write
a 1,050- word paper in which you address the following:
Does management’s assessment of the financial condition agree with your assessment from the Financial Statements Paper Part I? Explain your response. Support your answer using trend analysis, vertical analysis, or ratio analysis.
In the Annual Report, there are several concerns from management. Discuss these concerns, and identify other weaknesses not discussed by management. Then, recommend a course of action addressing these concerns.
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines
.
Resources Annotated Bibliography document. Research five websites t.docxkarlhennesey
Resources: Annotated Bibliography document. Research five websites that contain mathematical activities, manipulatives, and lesson plans for different math concepts such as: fractions, decimals, or percentages. Prepare an annotated bibliography that includes the five selected websites. Include a brief explanation of why each site is a valuable resource and how each might be used in the classroom.
.
Resources American History, Primary Source Investigator;Cente.docxkarlhennesey
Resources: American History, Primary Source Investigator;
Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) Microsoft® PowerPoint® tutorial
Create a Microsoft® PowerPoint® or another multimedia tool presentation of at least 8 slides on the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson.
Include the following:
•A title slide
•An introduction slide ◦At least 2 slides on Kennedy's domestic and international policies
◦At least 2 slides on Johnson's domestic and international policies
◦A conclusion slide
◦A reference slide
Include detailed speaker's notes.
Incorporate maps, images, and video from the Primary Source Investigator and from outside sources.
Create a visual template to use on each slide throughout the presentation. Use color.
Format your presentation consistent with APA guidelines
.
Resource University of Phoenix Material Data SetDownload the.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
University of Phoenix Material: Data Set
Download
the data set.
Review
the age and gender data in the data set.
Display
gender information in a chart and plot age data in a box plot.
Calculate
the appropriate measure of central tendency and variability for the age and gender. What conclusion can you draw from the data?
.
Resource Ch. 6 & 7 of Financial AccountingComplete Brief Ex.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Ch. 6 & 7 of
Financial Accounting
Complete
Brief Exercises BE6-2, BE6-3, BE6-4, BE7-3, BE7-8 & BE7-9.
Complete
Exercise E7-8.
Submit
as either a Microsoft
®
Excel
®
or a Microsoft
®
Word document.
*Due on 06/10/2015
.
Resource Films on DemandCrime and Punishment”Experiment Res.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Films on Demand
“Crime and Punishment”
“Experiment Research and Design”
“Selecting a Sample”
Resource: Types of Crime video in CJ Criminology
“Introduction to Crimes Kiosk”
Resource:
Criminology in the 21st Century
How Crimes are Measured
Utilize
FBI Uniform Crime Report data and select one offense, such as burglary, in two metropolitan areas.
Choose
metropolitan areas with different data.
Write
a 700- to 1,050-word paper comparing the occurrence of the offense in the selected areas. Identify the number of occurrences reported to the police for each area, and address the following questions:
Which area had more reported incidents?
What were the rates of the crime for each area?
Did the rates change over time in either area?
What factors might explain the differences in the rates?
Include
at least two peer reviewed references. I have attached the references that need to be used.
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines
.
Resource Managing Environmental Issues Simulation(or research a.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Managing Environmental Issues Simulation
(or research an instance where a city council may need to consider all angles for a local community and its surrounding natural environment.)
Write
a 1,050- to 1,400-word proposal to a local city council in which you propose deciding how to use money to best serve the environment within a community.
Address
the following:
Take the role of one of these stakeholders listed in the simulation
You have investments that total $250,000.
Decide how you would spend this money to improve the status of the environment in this community.
Explain how environmental justice plays a part in your proposal.
Explain to the council why they should choose your proposal.
.
Resource Ch. 9 of Introduction to Business Create a 5-to-7 slide .docxkarlhennesey
Resource: Ch. 9 of Introduction to Business
Create a 5-to-7 slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to teach your fellow students about the following IT applications:
Transaction processing systems
Knowledge management systems
Expert system and artificial intelligence
Enterprise resource planning systems
E-commerce systems
Include detailed speaker notes and examples.
Use images as well.
.
Resource Ch. 9 of Introduction to Business Complete the table in .docxkarlhennesey
Resource: Ch. 9 of Introduction to Business
Complete the table in Appendix E by describing the uses of following hardware and software components:
Legacy systems
Mainframe computers
Microprocessors
PCs
Network computers
World Wide Web and the Internet
Wired and wireless broadband technology
PC software
Networking software
Computer security software
.
Resource Ch. 3 of ManagementIdentify a time in your life wh.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Ch. 3 of
Management
Identify
a time in your life when you had to make a personal or professional decision, such as buying a home, changing jobs, enrolling in school, or relocating to another state or region.
Write
a 200- to 350-word description in which you discuss your decision-making process. Support your ideas with academic research. Include the following:
Describe each step of your process.
How similar was your decision-making process to the one described in the text?
How might your decision be different if you had used the same steps included in the text?
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Click
the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment.
.
Resource Significant Health Care Event Paper Grading Criteria.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Significant Health Care Event Paper Grading Criteria
Select
,from your Week One readings, a significant event or aspect that has changed or affected health care today. Examples include, but are not limited to, managed care, capitation, the multiple-payer system, excessive litigation, and so forth.
Write
a 700- to 1,050-word paper and discuss the following:
How does this significant event relate to the changes on health care?
In your opinion, has this event impacted the historical evolution of health care? If so, how? If not, could it?
Do you personally agree with the event’s significance, based on your beliefs and values? How so?
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines
.
Resource Ch. 3 of Financial AccountingComplete Exercises E3.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
Ch. 3 of
Financial Accounting
Complete
Exercises E3-9 & E3-13.
Submit
as either a Microsoft
®
Excel
®
or Microsoft
®
Word document.
Click
the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment.
A
Template
is provided for this weeks' assignment; please see materials.
****Due today before 8 pm central time
.
Resource University of Phoenix Material Appendix AIdentify.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
University of Phoenix Material: Appendix A
Identify
a critical asset in your city or state that may be vulnerable to domestic terrorism.
Use
University of Phoenix Material: Appendix A to identify five threats against your critical asset. Consider both terrorist and non-terrorist threats and include at least one weapon of mass destruction.
Calculate
the risk for each threat and identify existing countermeasures.
Write
a 1,400- to 2,100-word proposal that assesses the current vulnerability of the critical asset. Consider the threats identified, the calculated risk, and existing countermeasures. Determine if the vulnerability is reasonable and offer additional countermeasures to mitigate the risk of attack.
Use
at least two sources for support.
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines, and include the University of Phoenix Material: Appendix A as an appendix.
University of Phoenix Material
Appendix A
Security Assessment
THREAT
Examples
RISK
COUNTERMEASURE
Probability
Criticality
Total
Bomb
3/10
8/10
11/20
Bomb dogs
Sniper attack
4/10
6/10
10/20
Spot scopes and increase officer presence
Biological weapon
1/10
9/10
10/20
Contamination equipment
Cyber virus
8/10
3/10
11/20
Enhanced virus protection and biometric access
.
Resource The Threat of Bioterrorism VideoWrite a 700 to 850-w.docxkarlhennesey
Resource:
The Threat of Bioterrorism Video
Write
a 700 to 850-word paper discussing the goals of biological terrorism and how the potential threat of terrorist activity effects the public’s perception of risk.
Include
the following information in your paper:
Provide at least two examples of potential and past biological threats.
Describe how the potential threat of bioterrorism affects society
Discuss ways to mitigate the public’s perception of risk of biological threats.
Format
your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
.
Resource Ch. 14 of Introduction to Psychology Create an 8 to 12 s.docxkarlhennesey
Resource: Ch. 14 of Introduction to Psychology
Create an 8 to 12 slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes.
Summarize how psychological disorders are classified. Include the role of the DSM IV TR. Your presentation must have at least one slide for each major class of psychological disorders listed below. Describe the major characteristics of each class of disorder, and identify at least three disorders that fall under each category.
Anxiety disorders
Dissociative disorders
Somatoform disorders
Mood disorders
Schizophrenia
Personality disorders
Substance abuse disorders
.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
This is a presentation by Dada Robert in a Your Skill Boost masterclass organised by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan (EFSS) on Saturday, the 25th and Sunday, the 26th of May 2024.
He discussed the concept of quality improvement, emphasizing its applicability to various aspects of life, including personal, project, and program improvements. He defined quality as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to achieve the best possible results and discussed the concept of the "gap" between what we know and what we do, and how this gap represents the areas we need to improve. He explained the scientific approach to quality improvement, which involves systematic performance analysis, testing and learning, and implementing change ideas. He also highlighted the importance of client focus and a team approach to quality improvement.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
The French Revolution Class 9 Study Material pdf free download
Page 1 of 15What to the Slave is the Fourth of July F.docx
1. Page 1 of 15
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass
July 5, 1852
(What follows is an abridged version. Abridged by Janet
Gillespie, Director of Programming,
Community Change. The complete text may be found at:
http://masshumanities.org/programs/douglass/)
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:
…This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It
is the birthday of your
National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to
you, is what the Passover
was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds
back to the day, and to the
act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the
wonders, associated with that
act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of
another year of your
national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is
now 76 years old. I am
glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six
years, though a good old
age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three
score years and ten is the
allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years
by thousands. According
2. to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your
national career, still
lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is
so. There is hope in the
thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which
lower above the horizon.
…
…Fellow-citizens, I shall not presume to dwell at length on the
associations that cluster
about this day. The simple story of it is that, 76 years ago, the
people of this country were
British subjects. The style and title of your "sovereign people"
(in which you now glory)
was not then born. You were under the British Crown. Your
fathers esteemed the English
Government as the home government; and England as the
fatherland. This home
government, you know, although a considerable distance from
your home, did, in the
exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial
children, such restraints,
burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed
wise, right and proper.
But, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of
this day, of the infallibility
of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed
to differ from the home
government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of
those burdens and
restraints. They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce
the measures of
government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and
altogether such as ought not to be
quietly submitted to. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that
my opinion of those
3. measures fully accords with that of your fathers…Feeling
themselves harshly and unjustly
treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of
honesty, and men of spirit,
earnestly sought redress. They petitioned and remonstrated;
they did so in a decorous,
respectful, and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly
unexceptionable. This, however,
did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with
sovereign indifference,
coldness and scorn. Yet they persevered. They were not the men
to look back.
http://masshumanities.org/programs/douglass/
Page 2 of 15
As the sheet anchor takes a firmer hold, when the ship is tossed
by the storm, so did the
cause of your fathers grow stronger, as it breasted the chilling
blasts of kingly displeasure.
The greatest and best of British statesmen admitted its justice,
and the loftiest eloquence
of the British Senate came to its support. But, with that
blindness which seems to be the
unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts
were drowned in the Red
Sea, the British Government persisted in the exactions
complained of.
The madness of this course, we believe, is admitted now, even
by England; but we fear the
lesson is wholly lost on our present ruler.
4. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise
men, and if they did not go
mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt
themselves the victims of
grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity.
With brave men there is
always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total
separation of the colonies
from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so,
than we, at this distance
of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent (as has been
intimated) of that day, were, of
course, shocked and alarmed by it.
Such people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably,
ever have a place on this
planet; and their course, in respect to any great change, (no
matter how great the good to
be attained, or the wrong to be redressed by it), may be
calculated with as much precision
as can be the course of the stars. They hate all changes, but
silver, gold and copper
change! Of this sort of change they are always strongly in favor.
These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and
the appellation, probably,
conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though
a somewhat less
euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to
some of our old
politicians.
Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and
powerful; but, amid all
their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming
and revolutionary idea
5. moved on, and the country with it.
On the 2nd of July, 1776, the old Continental Congress, to the
dismay of the lovers of
ease, and the worshipers of property, clothed that dreadful idea
with all the authority of
national sanction. They did so in the form of a resolution; and
as we seldom hit upon
resolutions, drawn up in our day whose transparency is at all
equal to this, it may refresh
your minds and help my story if I read it.
"Resolved, That these united colonies are, and of right, ought to
be free
and Independent States; that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the
British Crown; and that all political connection between them
and the
State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved."
Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They
succeeded; and to-day you reap
Page 3 of 15
the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and
you, therefore, may properly
celebrate this anniversary. The 4th of July is the first great fact
in your nation’s history -
the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny.
6. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to
celebrate and to hold it in
perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of
Independence is the ring-bolt
to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The
principles contained in
that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles,
be true to them on all
occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
…
Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of
this republic. The signers of
the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were
great men too—great
enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a
nation to raise, at one
time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I
am compelled to view
them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot
contemplate their great deeds
with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and
heroes, and for the good
they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with
you to honor their
memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests;
and, though this is not
the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is
a rare virtue, and that
when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will,
intelligently, lay down his
life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to
despise. Your fathers
staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the
cause of their country. In
7. their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful
submission to bondage.
They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating
against oppression. They
showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They
believed in order; but not in the
order of tyranny. With them, nothing was "settled" that was not
right. With them,
justice, liberty and humanity were "final;" not slavery and
oppression. You may well
cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day
and generation. Their solid
manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these
degenerate times…
THE PRESENT
My business, if I have any here to-day, is with the present. The
accepted time with God
and his cause is the ever-living now.
"Trust no future, however pleasant,
Let the dead past bury its dead;
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within, and God overhead."
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the
present and to the
future. To all inspiring motives, to noble deeds which can be
gained from the past, we are
8. Page 4 of 15
welcome. But now is the time, the important time. Your fathers
have lived, died, and have
done their work, and have done much of it well. You live and
must die, and you must do
your work. You have no right to enjoy a child’s share in the
labor of your fathers, unless
your children are to be blest by your labors. You have no right
to wear out and waste the
hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your
indolence…Washington could not die till
he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is
built up by the price of
human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men,
shout - "We have
Washington to our father." Alas! that it should be so; yet so it
is.
"The evil that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft’ interred with their bones."
What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national
independence?
Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called
upon to speak here to-day?
What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national
independence? Are the great
principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied
in that Declaration of
Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon
to bring our humble
offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and
9. express devout gratitude for
the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative
answer could be
truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be
light, and my burden easy
and delightful…
…But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense
of the disparity between
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.
The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought
stripes and death to me.
This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I
must mourn. To drag a man
in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call
upon him to join you in
joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.
Do you mean, citizens, to
mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? …
…Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear
the mournful wail of
millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-
day, rendered more
intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget,
if I do not faithfully
remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my
10. right hand forget her
cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"
To forget them, to pass
lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular
theme, would be treason most
scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before
God and the world. My
subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall
see, this day, and its
popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view.
Standing, there, identified with the
American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate
to declare, with all my
Page 5 of 15
soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked
blacker to me than on
this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past,
or to the professions of
the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and
revolting. America is
false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself
to be false to the future.
Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this
occasion, I will, in the
name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty
which is fettered, in the name
of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and
trampled upon, dare to call
in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can
command, everything that serves
to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I
11. will not equivocate; I will
not excuse;" I will use the severest language I can command;
and yet not one word shall
escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by
prejudice, or who is not at
heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.
But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this
circumstance that you and
your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on
the public mind. Would
you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more,
and rebuke less, your
cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit,
where all is plain there is
nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed
would you have me argue? On
what branch of the subject do the people of this country need
light? Must I undertake to
prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already.
Nobody doubts it. The
slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of
laws for their government.
They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part
of the slave. There are
seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed
by a black man, (no
matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of
death; while only two of
the same crimes will subject a white man to the like
punishment. What is this but the
acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and
responsible being? The
manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that
Southern statute books
are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and
12. penalties, the teaching of
the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such
laws, in reference to the
beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of
the slave. …
…For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of
the Negro race. Is it not
astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting and reaping,
using all kinds of
mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges,
building ships, working in metals
of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are
reading, writing and cyphering,
acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us
lawyers, doctors, ministers,
poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are
engaged in all manner of
enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California,
capturing the whale in the
Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living,
moving, acting, thinking,
planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children,
and, above all, confessing
and worshipping the Christian’s God, and looking hopefully for
life and immortality
beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!
Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he
is the rightful owner of
his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the
wrongfulness of slavery? Is
that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules
of logic and argumentation,
13. Page 6 of 15
as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful
application of the principle of
justice, hard to be understood? …There is not a man beneath the
canopy of heaven, that
does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob
them of their liberty, to
work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their
relations to their fellow men, to
beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load
their limbs with irons, to
hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their
families, to knock out their
teeth, to bum their flesh, to starve them into obedience and
submission to their masters?
Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained
with pollution, is wrong?
No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and
strength than such arguments
would imply.
What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not
divine; that God did not
establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is
blasphemy in the thought.
That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on
such a proposition? They
that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is past.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is
needed. O! had I the
ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour
14. out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern
rebuke. For it is not light
that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
We need the storm, the
whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must
be quickened; the
conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the
nation must be startled; the
hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against
God and man must be
proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a
day that reveals to him,
more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and
cruelly to which he is the
constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your
boasted liberty, an unholy
license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of
rejoicing are empty and
heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted
impudence; your shouts of liberty
and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your
sermons and thanksgivings,
with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere
bombast, fraud,
deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up
crimes which would disgrace a
nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of
practices, more shocking
and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this
very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the
monarchies and
15. despotisms of the old world, travel through South America,
search out every abuse, and
when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the
everyday practices of this
nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity
and shameless hypocrisy,
America reigns without a rival.
INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE.
Page 7 of 15
Take the American slave-trade, which, we are told by the
papers, is especially prosperous
just now. Ex-Senator Benton tells us that the price of men was
never higher than now. He
mentions the fact to show that slavery is in no danger. This
trade is one of the
peculiarities of American institutions. It is carried on in all the
large towns and cities in
one-half of this confederacy; and millions are pocketed every
year, by dealers in this
horrid traffic. In several states, this trade is a chief source of
wealth. It is called (in
contradistinction to the foreign slave-trade) "the internal slave
trade." It is, probably,
called so, too, in order to divert from it the horror with which
the foreign slave-trade is
contemplated. That trade has long since been denounced by this
government, as piracy. It
has been denounced with burning words, from the high places of
the nation, as an
execrable traffic. To arrest it, to put an end to it, this nation
16. keeps a squadron, at
immense cost, on the coast of Africa. Everywhere, in this
country, it is safe to speak of
this foreign slave-trade, as a most inhuman traffic, opposed
alike to the laws of God and
of man. The duty to extirpate and destroy it, is admitted even by
our DOCTORS OF
DIVINITY. In order to put an end to it, some of these last have
consented that their
colored brethren (nominally free) should leave this country, and
establish themselves on
the western coast of Africa! It is, however, a notable fact that,
while so much execration is
poured out by Americans upon those engaged in the foreign
slave-trade, the men engaged
in the slave-trade between the states pass without
condemnation, and their business is
deemed honorable.
Behold the practical operation of this internal slave-trade, the
American slave-trade,
sustained by American politics and America religion. Here you
will see men and women
reared like swine for the market. You know what is a swine-
drover? I will show you a
man-drover. They inhabit all our Southern States. They
perambulate the country, and
crowd the highways of the nation, with droves of human stock.
You will see one of these
human flesh-jobbers, armed with pistol, whip and bowie-knife,
driving a company of a
hundred men, women, and children, from the Potomac to the
slave market at New
Orleans. These wretched people are to be sold singly, or in lots,
to suit purchasers. They
are food for the cotton-field, and the deadly sugar-mill. Mark
17. the sad procession, as it
moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them.
Hear his savage yells and
his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted
captives! There, see the old man,
with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please,
upon that young mother,
whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears
falling on the brow of the
babe in her arms. See, too, that girl of thirteen, weeping, yes!
weeping, as she thinks of the
mother from whom she has been torn! The drove moves tardily.
Heat and sorrow have
nearly consumed their strength; suddenly you hear a quick snap,
like the discharge of a
rifle; the fetters clank, and the chain rattles simultaneously;
your ears are saluted with a
scream, that seems to have torn its way to the center of your
soul! The crack you heard,
was the sound of the slave-whip; the scream you heard, was
from the woman you saw
with the babe. Her speed had faltered under the weight of her
child and her chains! that
gash on her shoulder tells her to move on. Follow the drove to
New Orleans. Attend the
auction; see men examined like horses; see the forms of women
rudely and brutally
exposed to the shocking gaze of American slave-buyers. See
this drove sold and separated
forever; and never forget the deep, sad sobs that arose from that
scattered multitude. Tell
Page 8 of 15
18. me citizens, WHERE, under the sun, you can witness a
spectacle more fiendish and
shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade,
as it exists, at this moment,
in the ruling part of the United States.
I was born amid such sights and scenes. To me the American
slave-trade is a terrible
reality. When a child, my soul was often pierced with a sense of
its horrors. I lived on
Philpot Street, Fell’s Point, Baltimore, and have watched from
the wharves, the slave ships
in the Basin, anchored from the shore, with their cargoes of
human flesh, waiting for
favorable winds to waft them down the Chesapeake. There was,
at that time, a grand
slave mart kept at the head of Pratt Street, by Austin Woldfolk.
His agents were sent into
every town and county in Maryland, announcing their arrival,
through the papers, and on
flaming "hand-bills," headed CASH FOR NEGROES. These men
were generally well
dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Ever ready
to drink, to treat, and to
gamble. The fate of many a slave has depended upon the turn of
a single card; and many
a child has been snatched from the arms of its mother by
bargains arranged in a state of
brutal drunkenness.
The flesh-mongers gather up their victims by dozens, and drive
them, chained, to the
general depot at Baltimore. When a sufficient number have been
collected here, a ship is
chartered, for the purpose of conveying the forlorn crew to
19. Mobile, or to New Orleans.
From the slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in the
darkness of night; for
since the antislavery agitation, a certain caution is observed.
In the deep still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused
by the dead heavy
footsteps, and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed
our door. The anguish of
my boyish heart was intense; and I was often consoled, when
speaking to my mistress in
the morning, to hear her say that the custom was very wicked;
that she hated to hear the
rattle of the chains, and the heart-rending cries. I was glad to
find one who sympathized
with me in my horror.
Fellow-citizens, this murderous traffic is, to-day, in active
operation in this boasted
republic. In the solitude of my spirit, I see clouds of dust raised
on the highways of the
South; I see the bleeding footsteps; I hear the doleful wail of
fettered humanity, on the
way to the slave-markets, where the victims are to be sold like
horses, sheep, and swine,
knocked off to the highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties
ruthlessly broken, to
gratify the lust, caprice and rapacity of the buyers and sellers of
men. My soul sickens at
the sight.
"Is this the land your Fathers loved,
The freedom which they toiled to win?
Is this the earth whereon they moved?
Are these the graves they slumber in?"
20. But a still more inhuman, disgraceful, and scandalous state of
things remains to be
presented. By an act of the American Congress, not yet two
years old, slavery has been
Page 9 of 15
nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act,
Mason & Dixon’s line
has been obliterated; New York has become as Virginia; and the
power to hold, hunt, and
sell men, women, and children as slaves remains no longer a
mere state institution, but is
now an institution of the whole United States. The power is co-
extensive with the Star-
Spangled Banner and American Christianity. Where these go,
may also go the merciless
slave-hunter. Where these are, man is not sacred. He is a bird
for the sportsman’s gun. By
that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and
person of every man are
put in peril. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground
for men. Not for thieves
and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of
no crime. Your lawmakers
have commanded all good citizens to engage in this hellish
sport. Your President, your
Secretary of State, your lords, nobles, and ecclesiastics,
enforce, as a duty you owe to your
free and glorious country, and to your God, that you do this
accursed thing. Not fewer
21. than forty Americans have, within the past two years, been
hunted down and, without a
moment’s warning, hurried away in chains, and consigned to
slavery and excruciating
torture. Some of these have had wives and children, dependent
on them for bread; but of
this, no account was made. The right of the hunter to his prey
stands superior to the right
of marriage, and to all rights in this republic, the rights of God
included! For black men
there are neither law, justice, humanity, not religion. The
Fugitive Slave Law makes
MERCY TO THEM, A CRIME; and bribes the judge who tries
them. An American
JUDGE GETS TEN DOLLARS FOR EVERY VICTIM HE
CONSIGNS to slavery, and
five, when he fails to do so. The oath of any two villains is
sufficient, under this hell-black
enactment, to send the most pious and exemplary black man into
the remorseless jaws of
slavery! His own testimony is nothing. He can bring no
witnesses for himself. The
minister of American justice is bound by the law to hear but one
side; and that side, is the
side of the oppressor. Let this damning fact be perpetually told.
Let it be thundered
around the world, that, in tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-
loving, democratic, Christian
America, the seats of justice are filled with judges, who hold
their offices under an open
and palpable bribe, and are bound, in deciding in the case of a
man’s liberty, hear only his
accusers!
In glaring violation of justice, in shameless disregard of the
forms of administering law, in
22. cunning arrangement to entrap the defenseless, and in diabolical
intent, this Fugitive Slave
Law stands alone in the annals of tyrannical legislation. I doubt
if there be another nation
on the globe, having the brass and the baseness to put such a
law on the statute-book. If
any man in this assembly thinks differently from me in this
matter, and feels able to
disprove my statements, I will gladly confront him at any
suitable time and place he may
select.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
I take this law to be one of the grossest infringements of
Christian Liberty, and, if the
churches and ministers of our country were not stupidly blind,
or most wickedly
indifferent, they, too, would so regard it.
At the very moment that they are thanking God for the
enjoyment of civil and religious
liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the
dictates of their own
Page 10 of 15
consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which
robs religion of its chief
significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in
wickedness…The fact that
the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions), does not
esteem "the Fugitive
Slave Law" as a declaration of war against religious liberty,
23. implies that that church
regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty
ceremony, and not a vital
principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good
will towards man. It
esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right
doing; solemn meetings above
practical righteousness. A worship that can be conducted by
persons who refuse to give
shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to
the naked, and who
enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy, is a
curse, not a blessing to
mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as "scribes,
Pharisees, hypocrites, who pay
tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy and faith."
THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE.
But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the
wrongs of the slave, it actually
takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark
of American slavery, and
the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent
Divines. who stand as the
very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction
of religion and the Bible to
the whole slave system. They have taught that man may,
properly, be a slave; that the
relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send
back an escaped bondman to
his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ; and this horrible
blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.
24. For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism!
welcome anything! in
preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! They
convert the very name of
religion into an engine of tyranny, and barbarous cruelty, and
serve to confirm more
infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas
Paine, Voltaire, and
Bolingbroke, put together, have done! These ministers make
religion a cold and flinty-
hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor
bowels of compassion. They
strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of
religion a huge, horrible,
repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-
stealers, and thugs. It is not
that "pure and undefiled religion" which is from above, and
which is "first pure, then
peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and
without hypocrisy." But a religion which favors the rich against
the poor; which exalts
the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two
classes, tyrants and slaves;
which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the
oppressor, oppress on; it is a
religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers
and enslavers of mankind;
it makes God a respecter of persons, denies his fatherhood of
the race, and tramples in the
dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man. All this we
affirm to be true of the
popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation
- a religion, a church,
and a worship which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we
pronounce to be an
25. abomination in the sight of God. In the language of Isaiah, the
American church might be
well addressed, "Bring no more vain ablations; incense is an
abomination unto me: the
new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot
away with; it is iniquity even
Page 11 of 15
the solemn meeting…. Yea! when ye make many prayers, I will
not hear. YOUR HANDS
ARE FULL OF BLOOD; cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek
judgment; relieve the
oppressed; judge for the fatherless; plead for the widow."
The American church is guilty, when viewed in connection with
what it is doing to
uphold slavery; but it is superlatively guilty when viewed in
connection with its ability to
abolish slavery.
The sin of which it is guilty is one of omission as well as of
commission. Albert Barnes but
uttered what the common sense of every man at all observant of
the actual state of the
case will receive as truth, when he declared that "There is no
power out of the church that
could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it."
Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the
conference meeting, the great
ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the
land array their immense
26. powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system
of crime and blood would
be scattered to the winds; and that they do not do this involves
them in the most awful
responsibility of which the mind can conceive.
In prosecuting the anti-slavery enterprise, we have been asked
to spare the church, to
spare the ministry; but how, we ask, could such a thing be
done? We are met on the
threshold of our efforts for the redemption of the slave, by the
church and ministry of the
country, in battle arrayed against us; and we are compelled to
fight or flee. From what
quarter, I beg to know, has proceeded a fire so deadly upon our
ranks, during the last two
years, as from the Northern pulpit? As the champions of
oppressors, the chosen men of
American theology have appeared-men, honored for their so-
called piety, and their real
learning. The LORDS of Buffalo, the SPRINGS of New York,
the LATHROPS of
Auburn, the COXES and SPENCERS of Brooklyn, the
GANNETS and SHARPS of
Boston, the DEWEYS of Washington, and other great religious
lights of the land, have, in
utter denial of the authority of Him, by whom they professed to
be called to the ministry,
deliberately taught us, against the example or the Hebrews and
against the remonstrance
of the Apostles they teach, "that we ought to obey man’s law
before the law of God."
My spirit wearies of such blasphemy; and how such men can be
supported, as the
"standing types and representatives of Jesus Christ," is a
27. mystery which I leave others to
penetrate. In speaking of the American church, however, let it
be distinctly understood
that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our
land. There are
exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be
found, scattered all over
these Northern States, of whom Henry Ward Beecher of
Brooklyn, Samuel J. May of
Syracuse, and my esteemed friend on the platform, are shining
examples; and let me say
further, that upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks
with high religious faith
and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slave’s
redemption from his
chains.
RELIGION IN ENGLAND AND RELIGION IN AMERICA.
Page 12 of 15
One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the
American church towards the
anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in
England towards a similar
movement in that country. There, the church, true to its mission
of ameliorating,
elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came
forward promptly, bound up
the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his
liberty. There, the question
of emancipation was a high[ly] religious question. It was
demanded, in the name of
28. humanity, and according to the law of the living God….. The
anti-slavery movement
there was not an anti-church movement, for the reason that the
church took its full share
in prosecuting that movement: and the anti-slavery movement in
this country will cease to
be an anti-church movement, when the church of this country
shall assume a favorable,
instead or a hostile position towards that movement.
Americans! your republican politics, not less than your
republican religion, are flagrantly
inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior
civilization, and your pure
Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as
embodied in the two great
political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate
the enslavement of three
millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the
crowned headed tyrants of
Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic
institutions, while you
yourselves consent to be the mere tools and bodyguards of the
tyrants of Virginia and
Carolina. You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from
abroad, honor them with
banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them,
salute them, protect them,
and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugitives
from your own land you
advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. You glory in your
refinement and your universal
education yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful
as ever stained the
character of a nation - a system begun in avarice, supported in
pride, and perpetuated in
cruelty. You shed tears over fallen Hungary, and make the sad
29. story of her wrongs the
theme of your poets, statesmen and orators, till your gallant
sons are ready to fly to arms
to vindicate her cause against her oppressors; but, in regard to
the ten thousand wrongs of
the American slave, you would enforce the strictest silence, and
would hail him as an
enemy of the nation who dares to make those wrongs the subject
of public discourse! You
are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland;
but are as cold as an
iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.
You discourse eloquently on
the dignity of labor; yet, you sustain a system which, in its very
essence, casts a stigma
upon labor. You can bare your bosom to the storm of British
artillery to throw off a
threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned
farthing from the grasp of the
black laborers of your country. You profess to believe "that, of
one blood, God made all
nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth," and hath
commanded all men,
everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and
glory in your hatred), all
men whose skins are not colored like your own. You declare,
before the world, and are
understood by the world to declare, that you "hold these truths
to be self evident, that all
men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights;
and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness;" and yet, you hold
securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas
Jefferson, "is worse than
ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose," a
30. seventh part of the
inhabitants of your country.
Page 13 of 15
Fellow-citizens! I will not enlarge further on your national
inconsistencies. The existence
of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham,
your humanity as a base
pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral
power abroad; it corrupts
your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it
makes your name a hissing,
and a by word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in
your government, the
only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It
fetters your progress; it is
the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it
fosters pride; it breeds
insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the
earth that supports it; and
yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your
hopes. Oh! be warned! be
warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom;
the venomous creature is
nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the
love of God, tear away, and
fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of
twenty millions crush and
destroy it forever!
THE CONSTITUTION.
31. But it is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have
now denounced is, in fact,
guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution of the United
States; that the right to hold
and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the
illustrious Fathers of this
Republic.
Then, I dare to affirm, notwithstanding all I have said before,
your fathers stooped, basely
stooped
"To palter with us in a double sense: And keep the word of
promise to
the ear, But break it to the heart."
And instead of being the honest men I have before declared
them to be, they were the
veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind. This is the
inevitable conclusion, and
from it there is no escape. But I differ from those who charge
this baseness on the framers
of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon
their memory, at least, so I
believe…In (the Constitution) I hold there is neither warrant,
license, nor sanction of the
hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the
Constitution is a
GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble,
consider its purposes. Is slavery
among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is
neither. While I do not
intend to argue this question on the present occasion, let me
ask, if it be not somewhat
32. singular that, if the Constitution were intended to be, by its
framers and adopters, a slave-
holding instrument, why neither slavery, slaveholding, nor slave
can anywhere be found
in it? Now, there are certain rules of interpretation, for the
proper understanding of all
legal instruments. These rules are well established. They are
plain, common-sense rules,
such as you and I, and all of us, can understand and apply,
without having passed years in
the study of law. I scout the idea that the question of the
constitutionality or
unconstitutionality of slavery is not a question for the people. I
hold that every American
citizen has a fight to form an opinion of the constitution, and to
propagate that opinion,
and to use all honorable means to make his opinion the
prevailing one….
Page 14 of 15
Now, take the constitution according to its plain reading, and I
defy the presentation of a
single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be
found to contain principles and
purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery…
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark
picture I have this day
presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this
country. There are forces in
operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery.
33. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery
is certain. I, therefore,
leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing
encouragement from the Declaration
of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius
of American Institutions,
my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.
Nations do not now stand
in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No
nation can now shut itself up
from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path
of its fathers without
interference. The time was when such could be done. Long
established customs of hurtful
character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil
work with social impunity.
Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged
few, and the multitude
walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over
the affairs of mankind.
Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm
of commerce has borne
away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the
darkest corners of the
globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as
on the earth. Wind, steam,
and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide,
but link nations together.
From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is
comparatively annihilated.
Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are, distinctly
heard on the other.
The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our
feet. The Celestial Empire,
34. the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty,
"Let there be Light," has
not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste,
sport or avarice, can now
hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and
crippled foot of China must be
seen, in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet
unwoven garment.
"Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God." In the fervent
aspirations of William
Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:
God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign.
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.
Page 15 of 15
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
35. That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.