What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
While this speech begins with Douglas showing his appreciation for the brave and just original settlers of America, the speech quite abruptly changes into what it was meant to be, a speech against slavery. As I read this speech and identified with the slave on the day of America's birth, it was quite simple to see how this day could bring out only anger and sorrow in those who were colored and did not have the same rights that the very country was prided on. With the constitution as clear as is stated that all people have rights, is ignored while other laws are follow with the utmost respect. They are not part of this celebration of freedom from the British. They are not free. This day that brings so many people joy and happiness also brings others jealousy and irony.
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