Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester
Douglass · 5 July 1852
The complete 5 July 1852 address, commonly known as “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, with its original prefatory letter.
Edition: Frederick Douglass · 5 July 1852
Source: Lee, Mann & Co., Rochester, 1852. Reading text from Literature in Context (University of Virginia), checked against the Rochester pamphlet where corrections are recorded; verse and source pagination retained.
Literature in Context TEI: CC BY-SA 4.0
Literature in Context; Students and Staff of the University of Virginia; Humzah Syed (transcription, correction, editorial commentary, markup); John O’Brien (editor). Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Based on the HathiTrust/Google digitization of an Indiana University Library copy.
The TEI file expressly identifies this license. Original 1852 words are public domain; modern editorial commentary is excluded. Gloss distributes this adapted transcription under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gloss paragraph segmentation, whitespace and line-end hyphen normalization, source page addresses, and separately listed scan-verified corrections.
Literature in Context TEI: CC BY-SA 4.0
Literature in Context; Students and Staff of the University of Virginia; Humzah Syed (transcription, correction, editorial commentary, markup); John O’Brien (editor). Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Based on the HathiTrust/Google digitization of an Indiana University Library copy.
The TEI file expressly identifies this license. Original 1852 words are public domain; modern editorial commentary is excluded. Gloss distributes this adapted transcription under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gloss paragraph segmentation, whitespace and line-end hyphen normalization, source page addresses, and separately listed scan-verified corrections.
Voices: Susan F. Porter · prefatory letter · Frederick Douglass · Oration · THE PRESENT. · THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. · RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. · THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE. · RELIGION IN ENGLAND AND RELIGION IN AMERICA · THE CONSTITUTION.
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: HE who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine…
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th July oration. This certainly, sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.Read it in the reading room ›