Quote #1: “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony”

The significant irony that it was to celebrate the fourth of July for the patriots, as they celebrated an independence day while keeping people captive, enslaved, and in misery against their will. The weight of his words are incomparable since he exposes the sarcasm that the Fourth of July was throughout the country, they celebrated an independence day but had slaves at their command if this doesn’t show the discomfort he felt emphasizing the ” I must mourn” in that sentence, nothing will.

Quote 2#: “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham.”

This also supports the idea that the fourth of July wasn’t right, it was a day of celebration for some but despair for others because of the injustice that the blacks suffered. This connects to the idea that Douglass had against slavery and connects to the audience using this irony and experiences that the US had within wanting to be “free.”