[On August 28th, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous
speech to the March of Washington. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy that and
four other great American speeches!]
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 begin 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 hypocrises and
flaws. And despite the ridiculous attacks over the last few years on “too
negative” histories or “apologizing
for America,” there’s no way we can understand our nation or move forward
collectively without a fuller engagement wth precisely the lens provided by
Douglass and his stunning speech.
Next speech
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other speeches you’d highlight?
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