Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July Review

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(More customer reviews)James Colaiaco, also author of an important book on Martin Luther King, Jr. has now written an outstanding study of Frederick Douglass.
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist, delivered an extraordinary speech in Rochester, N.Y., entitled "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass' July 4th oration is the greatest abolition speech of the 19th century. With rhetorical brilliance, Douglass compelled the nation to confront what has been called the "American dilemma," the contradiction between slavery and the ideals of liberty and equal rights proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. This contradiction between ideals and practice tore the nation apart, leading to the Civil War.
James Colaiaco does a masterful job in weaving together a comprehensive analysis of Douglass' speech and important historical context. This book brings to life a brilliant cast of characters, including William Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, John C. Calhoun, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sojourner Truth, and John Brown. Colaiaco's penetrating analysis shows that while Douglass praised America for its liberal ideals, he devoted most of his thirty-page speech to attacking the nation for continuing to allow more than three million black people to live in slavery.
Not only does Colaiaco provide a comprehensive and insightful analysis of Douglass' speech, he also demonstrates how Douglass continued to pursue its major themes in many speeches delivered prior to the Civil War. Among the important speeches the book analyzes is Douglass' condemnation of the 1857 infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court declared that, according to the Constitution, black people were not citizens and did not possess any rights which white people were required to respect. Colaiaco shows how the Dred Scott decision was a stunning defeat for the abolition movement, and aroused a chorus of indignation throughout the North. Abraham expressed the hope that it would be overturned as soon as possible.
Frederick Douglass realized that the Dred Scott decision undermined the message of his 1852 July 4th oration, the contradiction between slavery and America's founding documents. As the nation continued to plummet towards civil war, Douglass delivered a brilliant address in Glasgow, Scotland in 1860. Developing ideas that were rooted in his 1852 July 4th oration, and pursued in many other previous speeches, Douglass challenged the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the controversial position that, despite certain compromises with "slavery" made by the framers in 1787, the Constitution, when read through the ethical lens of its own Preamble, in addition to the Declaration of Independence, is a great abolition document.
Needless to say, the nation failed to heed Douglass' call to abolish slavery. What could not be resolved by rational discourse, had be be resolved by arms. The Civil War, in which some 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives, was a tragedy that Douglass predicted but desperately tried to convince the nation to avert.
This book is ideal for anyone interested in learning how Frederick Douglass, a true American hero, used the power of oratory to defend human rights.

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