On this day in Labor History the year was 1852.
The great orator and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, was invited to speak at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York.
The speech he gave that day would go down as one of his most powerful.
He asked the crowd, “Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?”
Douglass himself had been enslaved.
He was crying out against the great irony of celebrating a holiday devoted to freedom in a nation that still included more than three million enslaved people.
Toward the end of his speech Douglass asked his audience a powerful and resounding question.
He asked, “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.”
Douglass went on to say, “notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery…I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope.”
Today, the day after we have celebrated our national independence, let’s take time to reflect on those whose current working conditions and wages do not allow them to fully participate in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
And ask ourselves, are we part of the “forces in operation” fighting for these workers?
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show