This paper discusses Frederick Douglass' speech The Hypocrisy of American Slavery. In making his speech, Douglass tackles the three most commonly used excuses justifying slavery: the alleged inhumanity of slaves, the idea that slaves were not entitled to liberty, and the idea that slavery was divinely ordained. However, instead of making his own arguments in favor of these factors, his basic approach was to use existing arguments, acknowledged by slaveholders that supported his statements. First, he showed how the laws established by slaveholding states already recognized the humanity of slaves. Second, he used a combination of the American enthusiasm for liberty and a list of how slavery deprived African Americans of their liberty to demonstrate that the deprivation of liberty that came with slavery was morally wrong. Finally, he approached the third argument that people made in support of slavery, which was that slavery was divinely inspired. However, Douglass failed to flesh out this argument. He simply made the statement that what was inhuman could not be divine.
¶ … Frederick Douglass' Argument in the Hypocrisy of American Slavery
Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland. He escaped from slavery in 1838 and came to prominence as an abolitionist with his 1845 autobiography. However, the release of his autobiography made him fear that he would be recaptured and put back into slavery, so he fled the United States and went to Great Britain. In Great Britain, he raised enough money to buy his freedom, and was able to return to the United States as a free man. Douglass settled in Rochester, New York. He became an active abolitionist, publishing the North Star, an abolitionist newspaper, and directing the local Underground Railroad. He also sought to increase rights for free blacks, by working to end racial segregation in Rochester's public schools. In 1852, at a July 4th celebration in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave his famous speech arguing against slavery. Douglass begins by highlighting the differences between the state of whites and blacks during that time. He states that the American independence highlights the immeasurable distance between him and his audience, presumably a group of white Americans. He states that the blessings that they are enjoying Independence Day are not shared by him or other blacks. In fact, he states that rather than being a cause for celebration, for him the Fourth of July is a day of mourning. He points out that dragging men in bondage to a nation that is considered the temple or liberty is mockery and an irony. He even goes so far as to suggest that those who asked him to speak at the Fourth of July celebration engaged mockery by asking him to speak at that celebration. He points out three factors that support his position: the humanity of slaves, the right of all humans to liberty, and the lack of divinity in slavery. Douglass believed that the Fourth of July celebration of independence was an exercise in hypocrisy because of the institution of slavery, which kept so many Americans in bondage.
Douglass began by challenging the idea that slavery exists because he and his fellow abolitionists have failed to make convincing arguments that slavery is wrong. He states that it is wrong of people to suggest that slaveholders should need to be convinced that slavery is wrong. First, slaveholders already concede that slaves are men. The slaveholders acknowledge the humanity of the black man in their own laws. Slaveholders made actions criminal when done by black men that would not be criminal when committed by a white man, therefore holding black men to a higher moral standard than white men, which reflects a belief in the humanity of slaves. Moreover, laws prohibiting slaves from reading or writing spoke to the acknowledged humanity of slaves. He points out all of the accomplishments that African-Americans were doing at that as further evidence of their humanity, including: plowing, planting, reaping, using tools, building houses, building ships, metal work; acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; marrying and establishing families; and worship.
After establishing that it is conceded that African-Americans are humans, Douglass moves on to the proposition that he should not be called upon to prove that humans are entitled to liberty. He points out that Americans have already declared that man is entitled to liberty and freedom. He points out that all men resist slavery and feel it is wrong for another person to claim ownership of them. He also points out the brutal side of slavery, and argues that no person could argue that those things were somehow right including: beatings, lashings, shackling, hunting them with dogs, split out families, knocking out their teeth, selling them at auction, and starvation. He believes that it is ridiculous to expect him to argue that a system that includes all of these horrors is wrong.
Douglass' also tackles the common argument during the time that slavery was a divinely ordained condition or institution. He believes it to be blasphemy to suggest that slavery is divine. He does not flesh out this argument, simply stating that the inhuman cannot be divine. Instead, he states that slavery is a crime against both man and God.
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