what is 4th of july to a slave

The above audio reading by actor Ossie Davis can be used alongside the full text of Frederick Douglasss speech delivered on July 5 1852 at Corinthian Hall to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester New York. What to the American slave is your Fourth of July.

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A Fourth of July Oration.

. Douglasss speech emphasized that American slavery and American freedom is a shared history and that the actions of ordinary men and women demanding freedom transformed our nation. I answer a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. Jury nullification is the source of much debate.

In July of 1852 Frederick Douglass delivered a speech titled What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July a call for the promise of liberty be applied equally to all Americans. Some commonly cited historical examples of jury nullification involve jurors refusing to convict persons accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Act by assisting runaway slaves or being fugitive slaves themselves and refusal of American colonial juries to convict a defendant under English law. This for the purpose of this celebration is the 4th of July.

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