Document Interpretation 5 Reform Movements

Frederick Douglass: What to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?

1. Frederick Douglass was able buy his own freedom thanks to the financial support from the
English Quaker when he arrived in England looking for refuge. After freeing himself from his
master, he returned to his home country. It stood out to me because he was a really remarkable
African American. He decided to return to America after purchasing his freedom in an attempt to
influence for other slaves and join the abolition movement.
2. He stated that whatever that gave blessings to the whites, it only brought sorrow for the blacks.
Independence, justice, liberty, and prosperity was only for the whites, but not the other way
around.
3. It was expressed deeply by Douglasss words: The sunlight that brought life and healing to
you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice,
I must mourn. It showed how intense the segregation had actually become. It was to the extent
that one side owned all the happiness to themselves, live peacefully and free while the other one
was even worse than their craziest nightmares and suffered from things that they were not
supposed to.
3. To Douglass, what America had done to the slaves never looked blacker to [him] than on this
Fourth of July. On this day, the whites praised themselves for gaining and fighting their own
independence, but the blacks criticized the whites for having chained them up like birds in the
cages and for having cruelly mistreated them.
4. There were seventy-two crimes in Virginia. If they were to be committed by the blacks, they
would be immediately sentenced to death. However, if this was the case for the whites, only two
of the same crimes would lead to a similar punishment. Not only the blacks were mistreated by
their own masters, but the American government also went to their fullest length to discriminate
African Americans. This left me with a strong sense of injustice in the law, which seemed to be
designed favorably for only the whites regardless they were both born human beings like one
another.
5. Southern statute books indicated that it was forbidden to teach the slaves how to read and
write. The right to education became closed just because of their skins color.
6. Douglass claimed that slavery is not something to be considered divine as God did not create
it. God did not make humans and then separate them into different groups of people causing
racial segregation. It was the mistake of the doctors of divinity.
7. Douglass interpreted the Fourth of July, in the slaves point of view, as a day that reveal[ed]
to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the
constant victim. Every single applause for such a great achievement of the whites were regarded
as a disgraceful deception towards the blacks.
What to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?, a speech by Frederick Douglass, focused on
advocating the rights of African American being no different compared to those of the whites.
They were both created equal by God and therefore, supposed to have the same rights like one
another instead of racial segregation which set them apart. Such mistreatment was especially
shameful when the whites celebrated on the Fourth of July because they had their own
independence and praised its important, but they prevented African Americans from having their
freedom.

8. In William W. Browns narrative, he followed his master called Mr. Walker, who was a
slavetrader, as an assistant to his owners work. Among the slaves that were bought, there was
one woman with her child in her arm.
9. When she could not stop her child from crying, Mr. Walker ended up giving the baby to a lady
as a present.
10. The mother, knowing that her child was left behind, begged Mr. Walker in vain. She could
not get her child back and was eventually chained up with other slaves, which she would not
normally need to do, given that she had a baby with her.
This stood out to me because of how inhumane the white slavetrader could become. The
way Mr. Walker held the child was so careless, inconsiderate, or in strong degrees, violent. He
then mercilessly separated the baby from the mother and no matter how she begged for her child,
his decision of leaving the baby behind remained the same. This was such a heartless act that
made me doubt the existence of humanity.
The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
1. The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, a document advocating for womens rights
states that all men and women are created equal, which means whatever rights men are entitled
to, women should be able to have the same ones. If this perception were in peoples minds from
the beginning, there would never exist sex discrimination and differences in the societys gender
roles.
2. The mindsets about gender nowadays have been significantly changed, but there were
numerous things that a man could do, but a woman could not back then. Males always seemed to
be more dominant and powerful in the family while women as wives had absolutely no voice or
no authority to decide anything.
3. Every single fact provided gave me a strong sense of how limited and degraded women had
become in the old days. They were denied to even have her basic rights to live their lives with
liberty and pursue their own happiness. It appeared so real and unacceptable for women to suffer
such cruel mistreatment. It was also extremely unacceptable when I read this statement: He has
made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
4. In addition, men had the supremacy to childrens guardianship in case of divorce. Women had
absolutely no chance to child custody as stated in the law. In modern days, however, they are
able to because the law has been updated since then. It was so unjust to realize that women did
not even have her voice in the court of law to defend her right to child custody. Furthermore, the
decision was made merely based on false assumption without considering the childrens feelings.
5. Even though women started working and earning money on their own, it would eventually go
to their husbands. She was given no legal authority to any properties. It was extremely unfair
because wages women earned in a moment just became something that they could not own and
need to be transferred to men. This really discouraged females to join the labor force and would
rather make them stay home to do house chores.
6. Men dominated almost all professions earning good wages and what left for women just small
jobs with low salaries. A career in teaching, medicine, and law was never made possible for

women. This definitely has changed throughout decades and it is such a blessing that such
restrictions have disappeared from the societys mindsets today.
7. Women were denied access to college education. It seemed to me that men were afraid of
women getting smarter and being more well-informed than them. I felt like males prefered
females to be less educated and so have more reliance on males.
8. In the resolutions, it states that woman is mans equal - was intended to be so by the Creator.
This meant males are no superior than females because before being assigned to different sexes
and treated according to genders social norms, they are both born human beings. This stood out
to me because if this was in the Creators mind from the beginning, why would there exist
misperception limiting womens rights? It seemed to me that the Creator never intended to cause
misperception and bring such extreme mistreatment to females.
9. The women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they
live, which means they should not be easily satisfied what what they had and where they stood
in the society. They needed to have their own opinions on specific aspects of their lives instead
of relying on the normal rules. In my opinion, this was a big encouragement in order to get
women out of their invisible shells because they usually had to hide themselves from the society
and were afraid of expressing their beliefs publicly.
10. Recognition of rights also means recognition of responsibilities as the two always come
together. As this being realized, women are equally to men in terms of what they can do and what
they are required to do. With that being said, females have obtained their rights to vote and their
duty to protect and maintain that authority provided to them. This stood out to me because
women are able to stand at the same place at men, do the things they want to do without
restrictions. They can finally practice their rights, which also come with responsibilities.
Moreover, females are capable of participating in politics and education at last.
The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was an inspiring document advocating for
womens rights. It struck the gender differences between males and females as well as awoke
people to realize the importance of equality, which was the intention of the Creator. It did not
only provide a list of mistreatment aimed at women by men and the society, but also gave us
some resolutions on how to change such misperception of the minds and acquire and secure
womens supposed rights.