The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (1852)
<i>&gt; &quot;By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord&#x27;s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.&quot;</i><p><i>&gt; What, to the American slave, is your 4th 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. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.</i><p>Douglas was woke af.<p>It looks like there&#x27;s a maritime museum dedicated to him and Isaac Myers right near where Douglas lived in Baltimore. I&#x27;m a bit ashamed to admit I had no idea this existed, and I lived there for 5 years. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Frederick+Douglass-Isaac+Myers+Maritime+Park&#x2F;@39.2797457,-76.596331,15.75z&#x2F;data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x89c80378c0a47ba9:0xa6cb5051d69eeb42!2sThames+Street+Wharf!8m2!3d39.2796024!4d-76.5967541!3m4!1s0x89c80378bc2b6d51:0x595b256d3568d579!8m2!3d39.2794286!4d-76.5960038" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;place&#x2F;Frederick+Douglass-Isaac+M...</a>