At the beginning of Frederick Douglass’s “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?”, he spoke in an
educating tone. I believe his intentions were to educate the audience and illustrate the differences by
which we (people of color) are treated in the same “land of the free”. Because people of color reside in
America, White America often discloses the fact that Black or people of color are less patriotic. Growing up
the reasoning behind this stereotype resonated more and more as history has a way of re–
presenting itself. Douglass educated the crowd of the success they take advantage of, but those growths
aren’t for people of color. This land was stolen and built on untruths. The progressions were put in place to
benefit White America and oppress people of color. Douglass goes on to elaborate on how he is not a
beneficiary of the favorable features America holds. “They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce
the measures of government unjust, unreasonable and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be
quietly submitted to.” Douglass p. 250. In society today, people of color are still somewhat oppressed and
laws still do not benefit us entirely. For example, undocumented immigrants in America are being stripped
from their families and some of the children are being placed in foster care today in 2018. If you are not of
Native American descent, you are an immigrant. People fail to see and remember their history, yet feel
someone is going to take something from them.
Towards the middle of the speech, he goes on to paint the vivid horror of slavery and how he too was a
slave. Douglass encourages the audience to see his perspective of “Independence Day” and what the
horrors mean to him as a person of color. Being sold like an animal and stripped away from your
family. Black people aren’t patriotic, but were hunted by slave masters and emasculated in front of their
family if they were superior within their people. Essentially black people weren’t respected
in anyway. When you think about justice in American and the Black community, it often ceases to exist.
Douglass stated, “For black men there is neither law nor justice, humanity nor religion.” p. 261. This is still
prevalent to me today in 2018. Dylann Roof, a terrorist that attacked a group of African Americans in
Charleston, SC in 2015. It is a shame that Black people are still being targeting by terrorist because of the
color of their skill.
Douglass concludes, “the existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your
humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie.” p 265. I agree with this quote based on history
and the facts of life in America as a Black person. Although America has a dark past, he wants his audience
to understand why Black people aren’t patriotic. America is growing and expanding their resources. In
doing so, Douglass challenges America to include Black people for we have created the America that white
America prides itself on the evolution of.