Marie Dorline Desir
September 8, 2020
English 1121
Quote1: ” What to the Negro is the fourth of July”?
Paraphrase: What does the July 4th holiday, which commemorates our nations
Declaration of Independence from England means to the slaves?
Respond: Frederick Douglass writes that to the slaves living in America, the July
4th holiday is a sham or a fake holiday. The hypocrisy of this speech includes: how
can the Declaration of Independence talk about freedom when black slaves are
not bought and sold. when the colonist were oppressed by British rule it was fine
for he colonist to fight for their freedom. But why are the slaves not free as well.
Are all men free in this country? No, says Frederick Douglass. The black man is still
oppressed, but instead of of the oppressor being England, it is the white man who
enslaves others. How can the black man celebrate this patriotic holiday when they
are not free and equal.
Quote2: “The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is oft interred with
their bones”.
Paraphrase: The wicked injustices that one does, the effects of their actions
continues long after the individual has died . Also, the goodness that one does just
ends when a person dies.
Respond: The injustices from slavery has continued long after slavery has ended.
Black Americans are still oppressed. There are still many inequalities in our
nation’s health care, education and housing that divides the people living in this
nation into two.
Part 2:
Quote3: “When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the
field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in
your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish
of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from
a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!”
This quote is a very powerful statement. He used imagery to help the reader (me )
understand what he is saying in this speech. This quote gives me a mental picture
in my mind of what he is trying to say. He uses it to describe how slave is a human
being and should not be put into the same category as an animal. I noticed that he
mentioned creatures that people see in their everyday lives which are highly
recognizable to help get this point across.
Quote4: ” By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we
remembered Zion. We hanged our tarps 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’s song in a strange land? If I forgot 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”.
Frederick Douglass used a religious quote in his speech to help denounce slavery.
He made the connection between the bible and God to slavery. The term Zion was
used during biblical times to symbolize Jewish slaves. Frederick Douglass used
“Zion” as a metaphor to describe how black people were slaves in the United States.
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