Reflections on Frederick Douglass' oratory, "What to the Slave is The Fourth of July?"

I just finished reading Frederick Douglass’ oratory, “What to the Slave is The Fourth of July?”. It is a powerful speech that gave little comfort to his audience that in 1852, yet in closing he sounded a note of hope for the young Republic.

His criticisms of the institution of chattel slavery struck at the heart of American ideals, and those criticisms ring true today in the face of an oppressive, authoritarian President and his regime.

His criticism of religion in America, as it did then, stands in stark relief to the image that today’s self-styled “Christians” have of themselves. The evangelicals, the Dominionists, and others of their ilk, see themselves as agents of God, delivering his justice and word to a nation they claim is rooted in Christianity and biblical dogma. Instead, “They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty…”. The leaders of these evangelical cults of personality, “make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throne of religion a huge, horrible, and repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs”.

Seen in today's light, we see an oppressive and tyrannical regime tearing at the foundations of the Constitution and the rule of law in America, with “man-stealers, and thugs” being an all too accurate description of masked, thuggish militia that are the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We see “a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides (Americans*) into two classes, tyrants and (serfs*)”.

Douglass concludes with an examination of the Constitution, stating that, if we take that document, “according to its plain reading” there would be found not “a single pro-slavery clause” in its plain text. Looked at in today's context, there is no single clause within that plain text that establishes a basis for the dictatorial powers that Donald Trump, his regime and its enablers are claiming for themselves. Frederick Douglass’ criticism of the institution of slavery and the brutal hypocrisy upon which it was based, is no less relevant today in the face of the brutal hypocrisy and betrayal of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and their self-proclaimed “Christian” ideals by this administration and those who continue to enable it. But we do yet have hope, for there are more Americans who have not fallen into that abyss than those who have. Judges of every political stipe and from every Circuit Court in the country have repudiated the despotism of the Trump regime. And there is a massive movement of Americans of every race, religion, and gender, whose resolve to stand, peacefully and within the constraints of the Constitution and the rule of law is sufficient in number to bring it down with the next election.

No one can afford to stand by silently. Doing so is what let the cancer of despotism and oppression metastasize throughout America’s body politic. To paraphrase Dylan Thomas, “Do not go quietly into that dark night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

(*additions mine)

https://daily.jstor.org/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july-annotated/

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