Answer:
On July 5, 1852, Douglass, a former slave, orator, and writer, delivered a speech during an Independence Day celebration held at Rochester New York’s Corinthian Hall. Now dubbed as Douglass’ most moving speech, the lecture, which boasted a nail biting critique — “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn . . . Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?” –, remains a sound assessment of “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro.”
“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 the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, 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 the United States, at this very hour,” Douglass said, putting “Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens” in their place.
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