HAPP 14

Frederick Douglass, Fourth of July

H: This took place in the 1890s. Douglas highlights the issue of the arising racial problems. He talks about how Negros are being shut down every time with harsh actions and words. Douglas also states how it is not the fault of African Americans and places the blame on the nation.

A: The audience of this document are the southern resurrectionists, calling out their acts to take away their civil rights that they only recently got. This was directed at those either ambivalent or against slaves being freed. It points out focal points which would matter to them, such as freedom with the references to the fourth of july.

• Reconstruction era: Period of time after the civil war were Africans began to recieve liberty, but still discrimination

• Civil war: A war that broke out over the issue of slavery which was prevalent during that time.

Author:

• The author believes that slavery is wrong, cruel, and vile.

• He believes that the United States practices a cruel form of slavery to the point that it is unrivaled.

• He also believes that those who celebrated the Fourth of July as a day of freedom at that time were hypocritical, choosing to ignore a glaring contradiction to the purported principles of the United States.

Time Period:

• They are slowly starting to recieve rights .

• There is tension between the North and South

• The union has been brought back together

Continuity: The idea of Africans being exploited through sharecropping is similar to slavery which shows that the ways Africans were treated continued throughout time even when slavery has been outlawed.