What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society that would go on to become one of his most widely read speeches.

Douglass spoke on the hypocrisy of freedom and patriotism glorified within America and celebrated by the country as the 4th of July. He contrasted these celebrations against the horrors and injustices facing the enslaved populations within America. He called for the abolishment of slavery and the potential for the nation to change its ways.