What to the slave is the Fourth of July?

By: Frederick Douglass

Outlets: Minnesota Reformer

Published: July 3, 2026

Words: 2,186

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 5 days ago

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Editor’s note: Below are some excerpts from a speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July delivered by Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852.

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, …

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