Frederick Douglass · Politics

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

In 1852 Douglass was asked to celebrate American independence. Instead he delivered the greatest anti-slavery speech ever made - turning the nation’s own founding ideals into a thunderous indictment of its greatest crime.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Douglass praised the Fourth of July and condemned America in the same speech. In your own words, how could he do both without contradiction?

Leads to Thomas Jefferson.

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