The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro

This story has an immediate kind of emotional impact on me and I would guess to a lot of other people.  The story is about what the world is like for African Americans now that they are free.  Now that the Declaration of Independence is signed, they are set free.  It truly is impactful to this day because it carries a heavy load of the backbone of this country.  We are all free!  Before African Americans were slaves and under the rule of somebody else, now they are all together united with everybody.  It is a great thing that the Declaration of Independence was signed.

When Douglass gave this speech he gave it to a crowd of white people who I am sure that some of them were not too happy about what was going on.  The point that Douglass clearly illustrates is that he believes that not only he but everybody else believes that slavery is wrong (Douglass).  Both Emerson and Thoreau believed that slavery was wrong and they expressed themselves.  Emerson said that you must either get rid of slavery or get rid of freedom (Emerson).  Thoreau said that if one man had a slave withdrew from the government, and went to jail, than it would be the abolition of slavery.  I agree with all three points of the different writers.  They all agreed slavery was a bad thing and they expressed themselves.  "If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own” (Riley).  Again I agree with where he is coming from.


Slavery was a different topic for Douglass than it was say Emerson or Thoreau.  Although Thoreau helped fugitives (Riley) and Emerson talked about it, the topic was on the top of the to do list for Douglass, because he was an African American.  He was trying to help his brothers out, in putting an end to slavery.  Emerson and Thoreau cared but Douglass had to do something about it because the topic of slavery effected his life everyday and he had to do something to end it.


Douglass, Frederick. "Africans in America/Part 4/Frederick Douglass Speech." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Riley, Shannon. "Ideas-Reform-Emerson." Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.