What+to+the+Slave+is+the+Fourth+of+July+(Block+56))

==__What to the Slave is the Fourth of July __ By: Frederick Douglass  ==  Created By: Tim Lee, Zach Hall, Eric Ponder, and Macy Kinley     __About "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"__   After reminding the audience of what their fathers fought for and against, Douglass speaks of the present condition of slavery. Many admit the evils of slavery, yet fail to take action against it, while others live "off the fruits of your fathers." American citizens, according to Douglass, do not have the right to "wear out and waste the hard-earned fame" of their fathers. Instead, they must fight for justice. Douglass again emphasizes that America and its freedom do not belong to him, that it belongs to white Americans, "The rich inheritance of justice...is shared by you, not by me." Furthermore, Douglass brings light to the claim that slaves are not men. It is evident that slaves are men since there are laws against them which prove that slaves are in fact "moral, intellectual, and responsible beings." Therefore, it is conceded that slaves are men, and thus slaves deserve the same right of freedom, equality, liberty and justice as every white American. The African American race (slaves) have lived in poverty, through torture, for many years. Douglass expresses the injustice in the slavery of a race, a race of man-as described by the dominant, the majority WHITE race. Slaves, the "black" man, deserves and shall receive all that others deserve and receive; skin color is not a factor! [|To read his entire speech, click here!]

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 __Biography__  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> February 14, 1818- February 20, 1895, Born in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Frederick Douglass was an African American who was one of the most eminent human-rights leaders of the 19th century. His oratorical and literary brilliance thrust him into the forefront of the U.S. abolition movement, and he became the first black citizen to hold high rank in the U.S. government. Separated as an infant from his slave mother (he never knew his white father), Frederick lived with his grandmother on a Maryland plantation until, at age eight, his owner sent him to Baltimore to live as a house servant with the family of Hugh Auld, whose wife defied state law by teaching the boy to read. Auld, however, declared that learning would make him unfit for slavery, and Frederick was forced to continue his education surreptitiously with the aid of schoolboys in the street. Upon the death of his master, he was returned to the plantation as a field hand at 16. Later, he was hired out in Baltimore as a ship caulker. Frederick tried to escape with three others in 1833, but the plot was discovered before they could get away. Five years later, however, he fled to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a labourer for three years, eluding slave hunters by changing his surname to Douglass. Douglass was determined to learn to read and write. After successfully achieving his freedom in, Douglass used his inspiration from the works of William Lloyd Garrison to express his fluency in speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society annual convention. Soon, Douglass had published his own autobigoraphy, "//Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave".// During the Civil War, Douglass became renowned as a women's rights advocate and a powerful recruiter of African Americans to fight for the Union Army. After retaining many government positions such as minister to Haiti, and remarrying to Helen Pitts in 1884, Frederick Douglass died of heart failure at his home in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.