fredrick douglass' speech

Fredrick Douglass, who was an escaped slave, wrote what to a Slave is the Fourth of July?” This speech is unique because it is an actual encounter of a slave's perspective of the Fourth of July. As we will come to find out, to a slave, there is no Fourth of July. It is shown throughout the whole speech that a slave feels that being human means being free. Also, for one to really understand and know the true values of freedom, one must understand denial and put him or herself in a slave's position.

To a slave, being human means being free. Since a slave has no freedom, he has no sense of humanity. A slave is not free in his own country. He is a deprived person of his every right as a human being. When America gained its independence, it meant that everyone within the country had gained his or her own rights as being part the nation. However, everyone gained their independence except those that were considered less than human, which were slaves. Being human fulfills the basis for living your life according to your morals, values, and standards that were promised in you. A slave is denied the same opportunities as others. While he lacked in literacy and any form of education, he sees no hope of ever seeing a way to the

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

He went back and educated those that did not know what it was like to be a slave to help those that were still in slavery. This is a slave's country and they should have every right that a free man has. Denial is one thing that comes from many forms and many different aspects for a slave. A slave felt as though if he were to go and fight for his own freedom, he would end up back where he began or even worse off then he was before. In that speech, the sense that he feels freer in his country is more pronounced. It was Frederick Douglass' will to come back and educate others on what it was like to be a slave, also an escaped one, and how it was considered heroic. One that opposed slavery, while the other supported slavery.

Denial was very cruel and harmful to a slave because it tried their self-confidence and self-worth.

This speech is one that will live in the hearts of any person that was affected by slavery. His speech set the tone for another speech that he wrote ten years later on the Fourth of July. Douglass said in his speech that if a slave couldn’t write his history that he didn’t have one. society is also evident in this speech. It deals with the fact that a slave that can make no account of what they experienced. Since a slave had no form education, he could not write his own history.

Approximate Word count = 1690
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.