Question

The Hypocrisy of American Slavery

Answer 1

The speaker's intent in this excerpt from the speech is most likely to criticize the white population for celebrating liberty while enforcing slavery on the black population (B).

Frederick Douglass gave this speech in Rochester, New York on July 4th, 1852.

In the text, Douglass denounces the irony which results from asking him, a black former slave, to speak on a holiday which is meant to represent liberty for Americans. Indeed, while they cheer and celebrate, their slaves can only dream of freedom: "above your ... tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains ... are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them." Douglass is saying America is "false to the present" if it thinks of itself as a nation of liberty, because it is ignoring the people who cannot take part in this liberty.