[In honor of the 4th of July, a series highlighting various historical and cultural contexts for this uniquely American holiday. Leading up to a special weekend post on patriotism in 2022!]
On the
stunning speech that challenges us as much today as it did 150 years ago.
I’ve
written many times, in this
space and elsewhere, about
the inspiring history of Elizabeth
Freeman, Quock Walker, and their Revolutionary-era
peers and allies. Freeman, Walker, their fellow Massachusetts slaves, and
the abolitionist activists with whom they worked used the language and ideas of
the Declaration of Independence and 1780 Massachusetts Constitution in support
of their anti-slavery petitions and court cases, and in so doing contributed
significantly to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. I’m hard-pressed to
think of a more inspiring application of our national ideals, or of a more
compelling example of my argument (made in the second hyperlinked piece above)
that Black history is American history. Yet at the same time, it would be
disingenuous in the extreme for me to claim that Freeman’s and Walker’s cases
were representative ones, either in their era or at any time in the two and a
half centuries of American slavery; nor I would I want to use Freeman’s and
Walker’s successful legal actions as evidence that the Declaration’s “All men
are created equal” sentiment did not in a slaveholding nation include a central
strain of hypocrisy.
If I ever
need reminding of that foundational American hypocrisy, I can turn to one of
our most fiery texts: Frederick
Douglass’s 1852 speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass’s
speech is long and multi-layered, and I don’t want to reduce its
historical and social visions to any one moment; but I would argue that it
builds with particular power to this passage, one of the most trenchant in American
oration and writing: “Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I
called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with
your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and
of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to
us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the
national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for
the blessings resulting from your independence to us?” The subsequent second
half of the speech sustains that perspective and passion, impugning every
element of a nation still entirely defined by slavery and its effects. Despite
having begun his speech by noting his “quailing sensation,” his feeling of
appearing before the august gathering “shrinkingly,” Douglass thus builds
instead to one of the most full-throated, confident critiques of American
hypocrisy and failure ever articulated.
As an
avowed and thoroughgoing optimist, it’s far easier for me to grapple with
Freeman’s and Walker’s use of the Declaration and the 4th of July
than with Douglass’s—which, of course, makes it that much more important for me
to include Douglass in my purview, and which is why I wanted to end this week’s
series with Douglass’s speech. There’s a reason, after all, why the most famous
American slave is undoubtedly Harriet
Tubman—we like our histories overtly inspiring, and if we’re going to
remember slavery at all, why not do so through the lens of someone who resisted
it so successfully? Yet while Tubman, like Walker, is certainly worth
remembering, the overarching truth of slavery in America is captured far better
by Douglass’s speech and its forceful attention to our national hypocrisies and
flaws. And despite the ridiculous attacks over the last couple decades on “too
negative” histories or “apologizing
for America,” attacks that have morphed directly into the current anti-“CRT”
mania, there’s no way we can understand our nation or move forward
collectively without a fuller engagement with precisely the lens provided by
Douglass and his stunning speech.
Special
post this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other 4th of July histories or contexts you’d
highlight?
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