"What to the American slave is your Fourth 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."
— Frederick Douglass
What To The American Slave Is
What to the American slave is your Fourth 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.
About this quote
Douglass delivered this speech on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, at the invitation of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. He deliberately spoke on July 5th rather than the 4th to emphasise the gulf between the Declaration of Independence's promise and the reality of slavery. Widely regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history, it exposed the hypocrisy of celebrating national freedom while holding four million people in bondage.
Source
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? speech, Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852
