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UNIT 1B Primary Source Document A – Excerpts from Frederick Douglass’ speech:

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro", July 5th, 1852

Fellow Citizens, I am not disrespecting the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men. It does not often happen to a nation to have a number of truly great men.
Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied [found] in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Fellow-citizens, I hear the mournful wail [cry] of millions whose chains, are heavy and not celebrating freedom today. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I want you to see this day from the slave's point of view. America is false to the past, false to the present, and makes herself false to the future. Dare I to call in question everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great shame of America!
There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. The manhood of the slave is not allowed. It is admitted in the fact that Southern laws are forbid the slave to read or to write. Can Americans distinguish the slave from an animal?
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your national greatness; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless. To the slave you are hypocrites. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Document Based Questions (DBQs):

1.  Who wrote this speech and when was it given?

2.  What does Douglass have to say about America’s founding fathers?

3.  As America is celebrating independence, what does Douglass hear?

4.  What example does Douglass give that there is a lack of justice for black men?

5.  What does Douglass have to say about the slave & the Fourth of July?


Unit 1B Primary Source Document B: Not Free Yet – Testimony by former slave Henry Adams to Congress in 1880.

The white men read a paper to all of us colored [black] people telling us that we were free and could go where we pleased and work for who we pleased. The man I belonged to told me it was best to stay with him. He said, "The bad white men was mad with the Negroes [black] because they were free and they would kill you all for fun." He said, stay where we are living and we could get protection from our old masters.

I told him I thought that every man, when he was free, could have his rights and protect themselves. He said, "The colored people could never protect themselves among the white people. So you had all better stay with the white people who raised you and make contracts with them to work by the year and make a little money.

I told him I would not sign anything. I said, “I might sign to be killed. I believe the white people is trying to fool us.” But he said again, “Sign this contract so I can have it recorded.” All our colored people signed it but myself and a boy named Samuel Jefferson.” We will work without a contract.

In September I asked the boss to let me go to Shreveport. He said, "All right, when will you come back?" I told him "next week." He said, "You had better carry a pass." I said, "I will see whether I am free by going without a pass." I met four white men about six miles south of Keachie, De Soto Parish. One of them asked me who I belonged to. I told him no one. So him and two others struck me with a stick and told me they were going to kill me and every other Negro [black] who told them that they did not belong to anyone.

Document Based Questions:

1.  Who gave this testimony, when was it given and who was it given to?

2.  What advice does Henry’s former master?

3.  What did Henry say about being free and what did his former master tell him?

4.  Why did Henry refuse to sign the contract presented by his former master?

5.  What happened when Henry reached De Soto Parish? Was he really free?