July 1, 2024: Models of Critical Patriotism: “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”

[For my Patriots’ Day series this year, I highlighted examples of mythic patriotism from across American history. So I thought for my July 4^th series I would AmericanStudy examples of the other, directly opposed category at the heart of Of Thee I Sing: critical patriotism. Leading up to a weekend post on the state of critical patriotism in 2024!]

On the stunning speech that challenges us as much today as it did 172 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. Freeman and Walker, and the abolitionist activists with whom they worked, used the language and ideas of the Declaration of Independence (along with the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution) in support of their anti-slavery petitions and legal victories, 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 this piece) that black history is American history. Yet at the same time, it would be disingenuous in the extreme for me to claim that Freeman and Walker’s cases were representative ones, either in their era or at any time in the more than two and a half centuries of American slavery; nor would I want to use Freeman and Walker’s successful legal victories as evidence that the Declaration’s “All men are created equal” sentiment did not in a slaveholding nation include (indeed, embody) 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 and Walker’s use of the Declaration and the 4^th 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 on critical patriotism with Douglass’s speech. There’s a reason, after all, why the most famous American enslaved person 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 Freeman and 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 recent attacks on “too negative” histories or the concept of “apologizing for America,” there’s no way we can understand our nation or move forward collectively without a fuller engagement with precisely the critically patriotic lens provided by Douglass and his stunning speech.

Next critical patriot tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Other examples or forms of patriotism you’d highlight?