What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Full text of Frederick Douglass’s speech
The speech as read by Ossie Davis, part I:
And part II:
Discussion questions
In answering these questions, you may use any resources for this class to provide context, but focus on these primary source documents:
- Pun Chi, “A Remonstrance from the Chinese in California to the Congress of the United States”
- Political cartoon: “The Problem Solved”
- George Fitzhugh, excerpt from Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society
- Lucy Armstrong’s letter on slavery, the Wyandotte, and the Methodist Episcopal Church (original handwritten letter)
- Frederick Douglass, excerpt from “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
The definition of who qualifies to be considered a U.S. American has, since the founding of the nation, been under negotiation. In these five primary sources, people residing in America define, implicitly or explicitly, who qualifies as an American. Answer these questions related to the ongoing struggle over inclusion and exclusion:
- What criteria do people use to determine who counts as an American? As a citizen?
- What arguments are the creators of these documents making for inclusion or exclusion of themselves or others?
- In what contexts were these documents written? That is, what was going on in the U.S. at the time, and what had the sources’ creators experienced in their lives? How do these documents relate to other events that culminated in the Civil War (.docx)?
- According to the creators of these documents, what role does each of the following play in qualifying someone as of good character and/or an American?
- ethnicity/national origin/race/immigration status
- labor: hard work, wage work, unpaid work
- Christianity