Question

WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?

By Frederick Douglass
Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July 5, 1852

Fellow-Citizens—Pardon me, and 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, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings, resulting from your independence to us?

But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? ...

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

Which of the following correctly describes the main purpose of the second paragraph? (5 points)

To reprimand his listeners for forgetting past and present injustices
To remind the audience that the Fourth of July is only for citizens
To impress the disparity of experience between citizens and slaves
To reveal the steps needed to end slavery

Answer 1

The main purpose of the second paragraph is:

C. to impress the disparity of experience between citizens and slaves.

Step-by-step explanation:

The second paragraph of Douglass's speech emphasizes how different it is to be a white, free person and to be a slave on the Fourth of July. After all, the nation is celebrating freedom. But, as Douglass says, he and the other slaves are "in fetters", so inviting them to celebrate freedom is an act of cruelty, of irony. He makes a point of stating that, emphasizing the disparity between the slaves' and white people's conditions. There is no reason for slaves to celebrate, which means there is no reason for Douglass to celebrate. He, a former slave, knows the pain and suffering he came from. He cannot forget and ignore that thousands of people who are still in that predicament, working to death while being mistreated, beaten, humiliated, or sold as possessions.