[Introduction: Far be it for me to critique the words of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass about the meaning of the 4th of July to the slave.]
On July 5, 1852 in Rochester, New York, the former slave who escaped from bondage delivered a searing indictment of Independence Day from the perspective of the slave:
“At a time like this, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Oh, had I, the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery steam of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire. It is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm. The feeling of the nation must be quickened. And the conscience of the nation must be roused. The propriety of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed and it's crimes against God and man must be denounced. What to the American slave is your 4th of July? 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.”
These words are from July 5, 1852. Because these words are fiery and righteous in the moment, we defer to the narrative laid plain by Douglass. However, every black man, woman and child, was not a slave even in 1852. Douglass spoke his truth as a brutalized and runaway slave from Maryland. There were other truths as well about the Declaration of Independence. Did you know that the abolitionist William Cooper Nell in Boston praised the Declaration of Independence as a document of aspiration in the 1850s? Nell was a free black activist who lived in a free city, Boston, and a free state Massachusetts. Nell’s perspective was different as to Independence Day.
Douglass spoke for many as he critiqued the celebration of Independence in 1852 but he certainly did not speak for all Americans, or for all black Americans, or even for all free black Americans. As many of my readers know, I have taken the time to publish around 150 essays about 150 pioneer black lawyers since 2021. One benefit of a micro approach to history is that one can view individuals at the level of personal agency and human dignity. 150 pioneer lawyers would not all have the same life experience as a Frederick Douglass. Some might trend more towards William Cooper Nell, a free black native of Boston.
Consider pioneer black lawyer John Patterson Green (1845 - 1940). Born free and black in New Bern, North Carolina, Green came of age free in a slave state. How would his social condition influence Green’s perception of Independence Day? Unlike Douglass who came up the hard way one might argue, Green joked in his autobiography that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Green meant there was a lineage of freedom in his family tree, both black and white. Yes, there were slaves all around but it appears the black people in Green’s family were either manumitted by white lovers/owners or self purchase of their freedom. There was a degree of agency even in a slave state. There was also acknowledged white ancestors in the background which added to one’s complete sense of self.
How might these circumstances color Green’s perception of July 4th as a young kid and teenager in rural North Carolina in the 1850s? I did some digging and uncovered the autobiography of Green. At the age of seventy-five, Green still remembered the special feel and pull of patriotism:
Of one fact, every one will bear witness, — I was patriotic to a fault, as the following anecdote will prove: On a certain Fourth of July, I arose betimes and hurried down to the “New County Wharf,’ to participate, by sight and hearing, in the firing of the Day-break National Salute, only to learn that, there would be none fired; and that, the celebration of the Glorious Fourth of July would be duly consummated at Trenton, in an adjoining County, — twenty miles distant.
Later on in the day, the monotony becoming unbearable, and having no horse and saddle-bags, like another ‘John Gilpin,’ with which to ride to Trenton, I concluded that I would walk there. Now, here is an exemplification of one of the reasons which actuated the old gentleman to dub me ‘the worst boy in town;’ for, truly I was the only boy, of all that town, who dared to walk to Trenton, after eight o’clock in the morning, to assist in celebrating our Nation’s natal day.
At about three o’clock in the afternoon of that day, I made my obeisance to sundry musicians, cooks and waiters, who were functioning a great, patriotic ball, being given in honor of ‘the day.’ I was tired, dusty and both hungry and thirsty. Of course, every one heard with astonishment of my adventure and the successful termination of it; but, as the procession had, long since “broken ranks” and the participants had betaken themselves to the banqueting hall and ball-room floor, my efforts to review the parade were in vain — abortive;… Fact Stranger Than Fiction. Seventy-Five Years of a Busy Life with Reminiscences of Many Great and Good Men and Women, p. 39 (1920)
In other words, the ten-year-old Green walked twenty miles through the countryside in North Carolina, a slave state, to watch the July 4th parade, which he missed. It is hard to square Green’s love of July 4th as a free black in North Carolina in 1855 with Douglass’ bitter words as a former slave (now free) in Rochester, New York in 1852. How do we reconcile the vision of Douglas with the vision of the young Green? Could it be the case that, if there were up to 5 million black Americans in the 1850s, there were up to 5 million genuine and authentic ways to perceive July 4th?
Could it be that Douglass did not speak for the young Green? That the love of country in Green’s heart was alien to Douglass?
Conclusion: I raise questions in the grand tradition of this lonely Substack. I do not know the answers, save that the tension between Douglass and Green remains in my family to this day. I greeted all of my family members with patriotic joy in my heart this morning. One family member replied Happy Malia Obama day!!! Another family member replied Happy not being in USA!
And so it goes…and so it goes.
I've read pretty widely in Douglass and I'd say he was exceptionally patriotic, and thus doesn't form a very sharp contrast with Green. His fiery rhetoric in the 4th of July speech is predicated on his belief that, as he says in the speech, "Ithe Declaration of Independence is the RINGBOLT to the chain of your nation's destiny. ... The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost." He merely thought the country was failing to live up to its own ideals. Same goes for his take on the Constitution. He initially, with Wm Lloyd Garrison, thought the Constitution was a corrupt document that had to be shredded if enslaved people were to win freedom. But after studying it carefully, he determined that it did not condone "property in man" and that it was actually the key to the country's betterment. So Douglass was, I think, a person deeply committed to the very best possible version of America, and thus the truest sort of patriot.
Thanks for the comment. I may know more about the young Green in 1855 than Douglass in 1852. And certainly one in the year 1852 had good cause and every reason for fiery rhetoric. I appreciate the deeper angle on Douglass, particularly his development over time. The deeper question is raised how does one remain deeply committed to the very best possible version of America when America continued to exist under a Constitution perceived as corrupt in the 1850s? These questions of existential America required, as pioneer black lawyer George B. Vashon so aptly put it, faith in the coming of a better time. The young Mordecai W. Johnson would return to this idea of faith in his commencement address at Harvard University in 1919. To be the truest sort of patriot like Douglass required faith in something more which is why the preamble to the U.S. Constitution commits us to evolution, to form a more perfect Union.
I always fear Douglass' words on July 5, 1852 will be manipulated by those who have lost their faith in America today. Which is ridiculous since the American body politic bears faint resemblance to the America of July 5,1852. Your context for Douglass' words are much appreciated, although I wonder whether young readers today have the wise context for the patriotism of the 1852 Douglass.