Reflection The meaning of July Fourth...

To be an active member of society and in government during the time of the civil war and slavery, it was pretty much understood that you were white. However, there have been many hard hitting intelligent African Americans that were quite active during those times. Fredrick Douglous was one of those people. He was very opinionated and definitely stood up for what he believed in. He gave one very infuential speech that we were supposed to read titled "The Meaning of July Fourth for a Negro". I think Douglas wanted all of the people to take a bit of a deeper look into this holiday that we celebrate every year. Today this holiday is a time where you watch red and blue fireworks and eat hotdogs and just celebrate and hang out with your family and friends. Back then when our independence was just won I think that it was a much bigger deal, especially for the white population. During this time they were definitely superior to the blacks. The whites were celebrating their independence because they were seriously free, however what did the blacks have to celebrate at this time? They were not free in most states, they were slaves. They were not able to do whatever they pleased like the whites got to. This holiday was pointless for them, they did not have anything to celebrate. He starts out "The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too" (Douglass). I do think Douglass did believe that the signers were those two things, but I also think he was using some wisdom and intelligence, both themes of transcendentalism(Quinn). He wanted to get some people's attention. A lot of what Emerson and Thoreau did was take a deeper look into things, take it that one step further. This is exactly what Douglass was trying to get people to do when writing this piece. He knows what it was like he wanted everyone else to understand. I have a lot of respect for this man.

Douglass, Frederick. "The Meaning of July Fourth For the Negro." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Africans in America. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.


Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).