This page is my analysis of Frederick Douglasses speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
This is the first paragraph.
In Frederick Douglass’s speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", Frederick Douglass characterizes both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as documents that establish the principles of freedom and equality. Douglass discus’s these documents in different ways and specifies specific places in these documents to help illustrate the differences between the founding beliefs of the United States and the existence of slavery in the U.S.
This is the second paragraph.
For example, in Douglass’s speech, he describes the Declaration of Independence as a "glorious liberty document" that proclaims the inherent equality and rights of all people. He specifically cites the document's opening lines, which state that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." However, Douglass then points out that the Declaration was signed by founding fathers who did not extend these rights to their own slaves. He then points out that this contradiction undermines the legitimacy of the Declaration of Independence and exposes the hypocrisy of the United States' claims to be a country of freedom and equality.
This is the third paragraph.
Similarly, Douglass discusses the Constitution as a document that establishes a framework for a democratic government, but he then talks about how it enshrines slavery in its text. With one example being cited being the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of determining representation in Congress, as an example of the Constitution's support for slavery. Douglass also notes that the Constitution contains clauses that protect the institution of slavery, such as the Fugitive Slave Clause, which required that runaway slaves be returned to their owners.
This is the fourth and last paragraph.
Overall, Douglass characterizes both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as important documents that establish the principles of freedom and equality but points out the inconsistencies of these documents when it comes to the treatment of slaves. He believes that these documents must be interpreted in a way that upholds the rights of all people, regardless of race, and that slavery must be abolished for the United States to truly embody the principles of freedom and democracy that they say they do.