How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" (25-26)
Sorry, but Douglass can't hear the music over all the suffering of the slaves, so excuse him if he doesn't dance to the popular tune. He quotes Jeremiah on the Babylonian exile of the Israelites, drawing a biblical parallel to modern-day slavery. The response of American churches to slavery was important: some argued that the Bible supported slavery, while others argued that it clearly did not. Think about how personal religious beliefs might have affected a person's stance on slavery and abolition.
Quote #2
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 here, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. (28-30)
The audience thinks Douglass is going to talk about how great they are…but he's going to use this opportunity not only to say how bad they are on regular days, but how much worse they look on the Fourth of July. Douglass asks his audience—white Northerners who might never have seen a slave—to see him as a slave. Putting a personal face on what was for many people an abstract idea (slavery) was always part of Douglass' strategy, from his use of photography to his autobiographies.
Quote #3
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! (33)
Douglass lowers the boom. Guess who's on his side? God, the Bible, the Constitution, all those things white America loves. "They're not loving you back today," says Douglass. In this passage, Douglass uses parallelism—or grammatically similar phrases—to give us the feeling that he's pounding opposing arguments into the ground, at least figuratively.
Quote #4
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? (38-41)
"Wow, are you guys just really dim?" asks Douglass. "Not the brightest stars in the sky? Isn't it obvious that slaves are people, and thus that slavery is wrong? Why is that so hard to understand?"
Well, it might have been hard to understand because it was actually codified into American law in the Three-Fifths Compromise. That doesn't excuse it, but remember that white people had been told over and over, by their own government and often their own churches—trusted institutions—that slaves weren't really people. To break free of those assumptions, they needed to hear a different argument—one Douglass was happy to provide.
Quote #5
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, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? (54-59)
Rochester dudes, as people who say they love liberty and independence and freedom and all that kind of thing, you know slavery is wrong. Really, don't expect Douglass to try to convince you of this. That would be a waste of his breath since you already know it's wrong, and don't pretend like you don't. This is a clever strategy: if listeners agree with Douglass, they feel good about themselves, but if they don't, they're stuck having to agree that they're kind of dumb.
Quote #6
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. (68-74)
"Really?" says Douglass. "We all know you don't really think God likes slavery because that goes against the whole idea that God is better than humans. Obviously, God is better than humans because God is aware that slavery is bad, while some humans clearly aren't, and can we just stop these stupid arguments already?"
But seriously, because lots of American churches did support slavery on the basis of a few verses in the Bible, getting Americans to agree that God wasn't for slavery would have been a major step forward.
Quote #7
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. (80-81)
If the Fourth of July is supposed to make slaves proud to be Americans, it's having the opposite effect. Can you think of other instances, in American history or today, where the celebration of the Fourth of July has ignited controversy?