In this passage, Frederick Douglass speaks about the meaning of Independence Day to enslaved African Americans. Select the words
and phrases Douglass uses to describe slavery.
"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? . . . 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 denunciation 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 the United States, at this very hour."
—from "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" by Frederick Douglass
Oration Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester. Copyright © July 5, 1852 by Frederick Douglass.
