July 5 in American History
The former slave and great abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a searing speech asking how an enslaved person could celebrate American independence. He honored the founders' ideals even as he condemned the nation's failure to live up to them — a masterpiece of patriotic critique that held America to the standard of its own Declaration.
In 1852: "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?". The former slave and great abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a searing speech asking how an enslaved person could celebrate American independence.
The former slave and great abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a searing speech asking how an enslaved person could celebrate American independence. He honored the founders' ideals even as he condemned the nation's failure to live up to them — a masterpiece of patriotic critique that held America to the standard of its own Declaration.
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