Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5, 1852 is a famous speech (1852). In this speech, which was delivered in front of the President of the United States and other important members of the country, Frederick Douglass equates the treatment of the slaves to that of the Americans under British rule and persuades them to help the slaves like they helped themselves when breaking free.
Contents
The concept of oppression is a strong one for Americans everywhere and Douglass does not tread lightly on it. He uses the country’s short but rich history to show the Americans how badly slaves are treated. He reminds them that they were treated similarly and they fought back for their freedom. Douglass was one of the few who was born and raised a slave, was educated, and who broke free from the slaveholder. Douglass gave this speech as a fellow citizen of the United States but also as a slave, fighting for the freedom of everyone.
Douglass's View
Douglass stresses the view that slaves and Americans are the same. He wants all the privileged white men in his audience to see that he and other slaves are fighting the same fight their fathers fought seventy years ago.
They were statesmen, patriots, and heroes, and…with them, justice, liberty, and humanity were final; not slavery and oppression. (p340)
Douglass also says that since the residents of America believe that slaves are “men” (p342), then they should be treated as such. True Christians, according to Douglass, should not just stand idly by while the rights and liberty of men are stripped and torn apart.
Christianity is something of importance in Douglass’ speech. He doesn’t speak against religion in general, but rather how religion deals with slavery, specifically in America. He is outraged by the utter lack of responsibility that is taken on by many sects around the nation. He says that, if anything, many churches actually stand behind slavery and support it. Douglass equates this as being worse than many other things that are banned, in specific, books and plays that are banned for infidelity.
They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done. (p344)
Yet, Douglass believes that all of this can change. The United States doesn’t have to stay the way it is. The country can progress like it did before. Like it did in regards to British rule. Great Britain, and many other countries of that time, had already abolished slavery from its reaches. They were able to do this through religion or more specifically, the church. Because the church stood behind the decision to abolish the selling and using of human people, the rest of the country did also. Douglass, as mentioned above, thinks that religion is the center of the problem but also the main solution.
Because Christianity is the foundation of the United States it’s the cornerstone to solving many problems that occur there. Douglass believes that slavery can be eliminated with the support of the church and also the realization of what the Bible is actually saying.
You profess to believe, “that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,” and hath commanded all men everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate (and glory in your hatred) all men whose skins are not colored like your own. (p345)
Douglass wants his audience to realize that they’re not living true to what they say they believe. He talks about how they, being Americans, are so proud of their country and of their religion and how they rejoice in the name of freedom and liberty and yet they don’t offer it to millions of its residents (p345).
It is said that America is built on the idea of liberty and freedom, but Douglass shows his audience that it is more than anything built on inconsistencies that have been overlooked for so long that they now look like truths. And, according to Douglass, because of these inconsistencies in the country’s way of duty, it has made the name “The United States of America” and name of mockery and often held in contempt (p346). However, if slavery were to just be abolished and the rights of all men given, that wouldn’t be the case any longer.
Conclusions from Douglass
In the end, Douglass wants to keep his hope and faith in humanity high. He believes that they end of slavery is near and that there is no stopping progress. Knowledge is too available and appeasing to be shooed away when its services are inconvenient and soon the people of America will open their eyes and see the atrocities they have been inflicting on fellow statesmen.
Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. (p346)