This speech by Douglass is one of his most famous. It is often remembered and recited on the 4th of July.  This is probably because, as several of you pointed out, even today many of his arguments are still so relevant.

To begin my work of responding to your work and using it to highlight important elements of the text, I want to call attention to Jayme’s succinct summary of Douglass’s point and purpose in the speech. Jayme writes: “I believe that he is arguing is how white Americans are celebrating the birth of a nation but still seem to treat slaves less than humans. How although the nation’s fathers fought so hard for the independence of this country they still can’t separate what’s wrong from what is right and even if they do know how to separate it, they rather turn a blind eye.”

With this argument and purpose in mind, I’d like you think about the challenges Douglass faces with regard to his audience since this affects what he says and how he says it.  Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • The audience sees Douglass in two ways—on the one hand they admire him because of his eloquence but he is also a Black man that is not equal to them and a tool for their political purposes.
  • He has to walk a careful line between giving them what they want for this moment and from him as a person and getting his argument across with force.
  • In terms of Discourse Communities, he is in a weird position because he can patriciate in both that of the audience (white, well-off men) and of slaves. He can talk the talk of the audience—he sounds like them and knows their beliefs and values. But, is not one of them as he repeatedly reminds them as a way of shaming them though he certainly does not phrase it this way.
  • Instead, still thinking about Discourse Communities we should note that while he is no longer a slave, this is the DC he was born into and which shaped him so that he also knows the language, values, and beliefs of this group as well. And importantly, he knows their experiences so that he can speak for them, which is what he is doing here. In your first assignment you will also take this position as insider to a DC speaking for that particular DC to which you belong and addressing a group that is not part of your DC.

The next thing I want us to think about are Douglass’s writing strategies and how he pursues his purpose with his audience in mind. Remember that purpose and audience are an important part of your first major writing assignment.

 

Below I use your responses to call attention to Douglass’ writing techniques.

Many of you were struck by his use of vivid description to create images and draw the reader in and appeal to their emotions. For example:

Ashley calls our attention to the line: ¨As with rivers so with nations” (Douglass 2). She writes, “Two main points correlating with this metaphor is that if not enough is done to a river it can dry up just as a nation can. If a nation’s conflict is not given enough priority (in this case the lack of equality) then the nation can sink and dry up into its normalization of the problem. The other point is that much rage can arise of the issue considering it is so sensitive, possibly even strippin Individuals of their glory.”

Here we see the descriptive language that is so powerful in Douglass but also a kind of threat—as Ashley points out—but the threat is not direct, it is veiled in a descriptive analogy.  These threats are meant to scare the audience into thinking about what can happen if they don’t deal with the issues at hand.

Kathy calls our attention to another image that works similarly: “From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day—cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.” (Douglass p.4) Here, Douglass is predicting impending doom.

Description is also used with personal examples to help the audience feel the problem and to provide concrete evidence (himself) of the problem.  He’s his own research—a reliable source—this is why, as Hakyung, Amia, and Maiya point out, Douglass is persuasive when he describes slavery. Also, as Amia points out, the use of description in these moments appeals to the emotions of his readers.

Here is an example Maiya, calls our attention to and in which Douglass uses descriptive language that creates an image and emotionally moves the audience and that is tied to his personal experience: “Mark the sad procession, as it moves wearily along, and the inhuman wretch who drives them. Hear his savage yells and his blood-chilling oaths, as he hurries on his affrighted captives! There, see the old man, with locks thinned and gray. Cast one glance, if you please, upon that young mother, whose shoulders are bare to the scorching sun, her briny tears falling on the brow of the babe in her arms” (Douglass 11).

In this moment Douglass is also using his understanding of audience’s Discourse Community by drawing on this audience’s beliefs about family and women to shock them and help them understand the horrors of slavery.

And in fact, Douglass often uses his audiences’ values against them through his use of comparisons –another strategy many of you pointed out.

Shahnoza calls our attention to this quote: “They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny” (Douglass 5).

And James calls our attention to this quote: “Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men, there is always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born!”

In both moments Douglass takes something the audience is proud of and feels is right and draws a comparison with what is happening to the slaves and how they are fighting for their freedom. This way the audience has to stop condemning the slave community’s forceful fight for freedom or see their own past actions as bad.

As Nicholas points out about similar moments: “Douglass skillfully attempted to appeal to the audience’s emotion to create a sense of guilt in order to make the audience realize the cycle of oppression.” Nicholas also says, “The writing strategy that I see Douglass using is imagery. Douglass is specifically using imagery to appeal to the crowd’s sense of nationalism as well as nostalgia. He’s reminding the audience of what the colonists fought for as well as attempting to remind them of the feeling of joy that flooded the nation as their independence had been recognized.”

Similarly, Guilherme points out the way Douglass works to undermine the audiences’ sense of superiority: “Douglass is arguing that, after all the facts are collected, examined and compared, one can be undoubtedly convinced that in no other place around the world the hypocrisy and barbarity found in America at that time could be surpassed. A nation founded on the principles of freedom and liberty for all still held other men, women and children enslaved and oppressed, denying them the very right in which they based the nations’ existence.”

In addition to the idea of freedom, Douglass also uses the value his audience assigns the church and their views of themselves as good Christians against them. Vanessa calls our attention to this with the quote: “One is struck with the difference between the attitude of the American church towards the anti-slavery movement, and that occupied by the churches in England towards a similar movement in that country. There, the church, true to its mission of ameliorating, elevating, and improving the condition of mankind, came forward promptly, bound up the wounds of the West Indian slave, and restored him to his liberty” (Douglass16-17). Vanessa writes, “Douglass is Comparing and Contrasting the different actions the American and English churches took against slavery in the past.” “By doing this Douglass exposes how immoral and unjust the American churches were towards slaves and proves his point.”

This comparison is especially convincing for his audience because in their American minds the English are the oppressive bad guys who they freed themselves from—so how can they be better to the slaves than the Americans—this is meant to make them feel badly about themselves.

The use of questions is another tactic several of you pointed out. For example, Amenah calls our attention to Douglass’ use of rhetorical questions and irony to show his audience they are being ridiculous. And Hakyung provides and example of this with the following quote: “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, 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?” (Douglass 7)

Hakyung writes, “Douglas uses a strategy in this sentence that attracted the attention of the audience. He celebrates American independence in the beginning and begins the real statement he is trying to talk about from this sentence.”

Indeed, throughout Douglass soothes and praises his audience into listening and then says “BUT…” and takes it away from them. Relatedly, Shannon calls our attention to this moment: “He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have.” Here Douglass is telling his audience how powerful they are to make them feel good but also to call attention to the fact that he isn’t one of them which is ironic since they value him and asked him to speak.  It makes the point that there is a problem.

In fact, in many places, Douglass praises the audience—and this is another strategy he uses. In part this is to make them feel good and keep their attention but it is also double edged as he is saying if you’re so good then why are these awful things I’m pointing out true.

But also, as Evan points out, Douglass want to balance his angry and finger-pointing tone with one of hope so that the audience will be moved by the one and feel that they can do something about it. Evan calls out attention to this moment: “only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower.”

Additionally, Douglass is trying to soothe the audience. He’s been attacking them but he doesn’t want them to be angry and not listen (after all he is still a Black man and they can just discount him and move on because that is how they think) so at the same time that he criticizes them he has to give them something positive or soothing. And this is another example of awareness of audience and of discourse community.

Finally, if you would like to see an in depth analysis of this text and the strategies Douglass uses, go to this annotated version of the text on the National Humanities Center’s website: https://americainclass.org/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/