Question

Write a summary of this excerpt from "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" to confirm your understanding of the speech.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

This is the summary.

Frederick Douglass was an African American reformer and abolitionist who, on July 5, 1852, was invited a keynote speaker during the Independence Day celebration. There, he delivered a controversial speech about the impact of independence on black people living in America.

Right there, in the Corinthian Hall of Rochester, in the state of New York, Douglass delivered a controversial speech nobody expected. He set the tone of the speech since the very beginning of his words when he literally said "This fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn."

That really caught people's attention. And that was just the beginning.

In his speech, Douglass recognized the value and courage of the United States founding fathers but clearly established that those rights stated in the US Constitution were not for everyone. They were just for the white people. Not the African American people who have been suffering for racist segregation and most in the South were suffering because they were slaves.