Custom research paper on Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas disposes himself to the audience as their opponent who has nothing in common with them, who does not belong to their social structure, who does not share their joy on the holidays and festivals, he does not recognize their virtues and does not believe in their adherence to their values, and for whom the greatest national holiday, the Independence Day, is the day of sorrow that exposes the blatant hypocrisy of the American society. He opposes their deeds, their words and thoughts. But still he addresses them with the hope for understanding and adequate reaction. He is an open, sincere and honest opponent who does not hide his claims, complaints and indignation.
Douglass manifests how the existing slavery profanes and defiles all the values and ideas proclaimed by the Founding Fathers and other revolutionary patriots. The basic rights are not enjoyed by the black, they have no freedom, they are not paid for their work, they are property of their masters. “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” says the speaker, and his words are irrefutable.
Still his audience and the orator belonged to the same party. For him to verbally attack the supporting audience in such a manner, there must have been a strong confidence that they completely shared their abolitionist values and their links were too tight. Douglas was rather concerned with the indecisiveness of his companions and tried to foster them to take more radical measures in their common struggle for the liberation of the slaves. He went to the stake over their accepting his stimulating propositions, if they claim to be sincere adherents of liberty, equality and fraternity.
In his whole speech, Douglas does not proclaim any new idea, he does not offer some utopian project, his claim is extremely simple – he asks the his opponents to let their black fellow patriots enjoy the same rights, the liberty and freedom to which the white have had access for a long time. He asks them to provide the black people with the status appropriate to human being. And that is all he desires. His words are very emotional, convincing and profound; Douglas applies to all the recognized authorities including common sense in his call on giving freedom to the enslaved people.custom research paper
8. Turning to the hypocrisy of celebrating the 4th of July, Douglas proclaims, “I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are to-day rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them” (341). He can’t bear the holiday of freedom in the society where slavery exists, and further he presents the vision of that day from the standpoint of slave. Such declaration must have had a certain effect on the audience as it gives a vivid picture and representation of the miserable conditions in which the Afro-Americans were. It must be emphasised that although the words of Douglas are full with indignation there cannot be seen, made out or felt any hatred, any threat of revenge, insurgence or public nuisance.
Further on he reminds that “[t]here is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him” (343); in the state of Virginia a black person is subject to the capital punishment for 72 crimes while a white one only for 2 (342); there exist the enactments that prohibit teaching the slaves to read and write; the 4th of July is the symbol of “the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim” for a slave. In the national holiday, a black person cannot see anything but “sham,” “unholy license,” “swelling vanity,” “hollow mockery,” and besides that – “bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy” (343). Such a colorful connotative bouquet is in the minds and hearts of the people who cannot join the celebration.
An enslaved person just cannot share the celebration of liberation of the colonies from the British burden, because he / she does not enjoy freedom, for the black people, there is no difference who their masters are the white Americans or Britons. The principles of human rights proclaimed and expressed by the Famers are not applicable to the Afro-Americans according to the law, so how can they hold or support such celebration? A black person sharing the joy that is experienced by the white citizens would look unnatural even more hypocritical than the whites. The abolition is the only chance for the black to experience and celebrate the Independence Day.
The speech of Douglas turns out to be convincing and apparently influenced the further success of the abolitionist movement; the strength of his arguments is doubled, and even tripled, by the fact that he is also a former slave and is a reliable witness of that great abuse.

Works cited
Reid, Ronald. F., and James F. Klumpp, eds. American Rhetorical Discourse. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2005.