An important look at Frederick Douglass' pivotal July 4th, 1852, speech in which he identified the grand American Dilemma--the critical contradiction between slavery and our nation's ideals--and set the stage for his life's work
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An important look at Frederick Douglass' pivotal July 4th, 1852, speech in which he identified the grand American Dilemma--the critical contradiction between slavery and our nation's ideals--and set the stage for his life's work
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I read this book by James Colaiaco, a Master Teacher of Great Books at New York University, to help me think about the upcoming Independence Day holiday of July 4, 2006. The book did both less than that and more.
Colaiaco's "Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July Oration" has as its named subject a speech that Douglass (1818 -- 1895) gave in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852, generally known as "What, to the American Slave, is your 4th of July?" In his speech, Douglass paid tribute to the vision and courage of America's founders in their fight for freedom and for independence from Britain. But equally importantly, he excoriated the America of his day for its toleration of the institution of slavery. Using his great oratorical powers, Douglass lashed out at the hypocrisy that would proclaim that "all men are created equal" with self-evident rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" while enslaving 4,000,000 African Americans. Yet Douglass found a reason for hope as he was convinced that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution offered the path to eliminate slavery.
Colaiaco's book is similar in format to books published in recent years analyzing the speeches of Abraham Lincoln in detail. There have been notable books, for example, devoted to Lincoln's Cooper Union Address, the Second Inaugural Address, and, of course, the Gettysburg Address. Douglass was a grand and learned speaker who had escaped from slavery as a young man and who, as was Lincoln, was largely self-taught. His speeches, together with his three autobiographies, richly reward reading.
Although Colaiaco gives a good account of Douglass's celebrated Fourth of July oration, the book is broader in scope than that single speech. It discusses Douglass's development as a thinker beginning the time he spent in slavery and concluding, in general, with the end of the Civil War, even though Douglass lived and wrote for an additional 30 years. Most of the book discusses American Constitutional interpretation and Douglass's changing views of the American Constitution. Thus, Colaiaco points out that, upon escaping slavery, Douglass originally was a follower of the abolitionist William Garrison who wanted nothing to do with the American Constitution because he believed it sanctioned slavery. (Ironically, this understanding of the Constitution was shared by the Southern slaveholders.) Gradually, Douglass became convinced that the Declaration and Constitution themselves were powerful weapons against slavery and that the words of the Constitution could be read to support its abolition. (Abraham Lincoln did not go so far. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation under grounds of military necessary and was troubled about whether it would be sustainable in peace time. The result was the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.) Douglass thus broke with Garrison and fought for a political end to slavery within the contours of the American political system and its governing documents. This was a bold and creative step to take. Douglass's way of reading a fundamental legal text remains with us, and controversial, today.
By the time he delivered his Fourth of July oration, Douglass had already broken with Garrison. Colaiaco takes the reader through the speech and points out how Douglass believed change could be attained within American constitutionalism. But most of the book uses the July 4 speech as a springboard for consideration of questions of Constitutional interpretation, the reasons for Douglass's change in his view of the Constitution, the Dred Scott decision, Douglass's relationship with John Brown, and the coming of the Civil War. Colaiaco also discusses several additional speeches of Douglass, including a speech he gave in Glasgow, Scotland in March 1860, "The Constitution of the United States: is it pro-slavery or anti-slavery" and a speech he gave in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1876, "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln". The book concludes with an analysis of Douglass's reading of the Constitution, including these portions which appear to sanction slavery where it existed without actually using the word.
I found the discussion of constitutional interpretation insightful and stimulating, but it took my attention away from Douglass's Fourth of July speech. The speech deserves detailed treatment in a book, but Colaiaco's book, while leading the reader to think that the speech is its main focus, does something good, but a little different.
On a related note, I was also disappointed that the book does not include the rather lengthy text of Douglass's Fourth of July oration. (Colaiaco's text is only about 200 pages long.) Readers interested enough to pursue a treatment of the speech ought to be given the text so that they can read it for themselves as they study the analysis. Douglass prepared an edited, abridged version of the speech and included it in his second autobiography, which is available from the Library of America series. The speech, together with many of Douglass's other works, is also available in Philip Foner's one-volume edition of "Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings" in the Library of Black America series. Those interested in reading Douglass for themselves, particularly the Fourth of July oration, would do well to turn to one of these sources as they read Colaiaco's fine study.
