After you have consulted the above material, complete the following task:Task: Below I have selected four quotations from “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?”. Choose one of the quotations listed, and create a thread with the title I have provided (or your own) for the quotation, and then offer a response to the quotation.As you read the quotations, you may want to consider the following pointsDouglass delivered this speech during increased tension over the institution of slavery in the United States.Douglass’s experiences as a slave and a freed man, and, consequently, the contrast between plantation labour he endured and the platform from which he speaks.The role of irony and sarcasm in Douglass’s speech. Recall that irony requires its audience to see or think about a topic or issue in two ways at the same time. The Oxford English Dictionary defines irony as follows: “The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect; esp. (in earlier use) the use of approbatory language to imply condemnation or contempt (cf. sarcasm n.).”The effect of the quote on Douglass’s audience members, who were mainly white.Consider Douglass’s language by focusing on the figures of speech used, such as allusions, imagery, and so on.Your answers do not have to address any of the above suggestions. They are meant as guidelines, so feel free to respond to the quotation as you see fit.Quotation 1: Distance and Time”The fact is, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation . . . is considerable… [and the] difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight.””No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done … . But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind … . Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together … . Space is comparatively annihilated.”Quotation 2: Slave Auction”Behold…you will see…I will show you….Mark the sad procession … Hear his savage yells … There, see the old man … Cast one glance … See, too … Suddenly! You hear, your ears are saluted. The crack you heard… Follow this drove . . . Attend the auction . . . Tell me, citizens, where under the sun, you can witness a spectacle more fiendish and shocking. Yet this is but a glance at the American slave-trade, as it exists, at this moment, in the ruling part of the United States.”Quotation 3: Limited Ideals”Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? 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? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Would to God, both for your sakes and our, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions. But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!”Quotation 4: Declaration of Independence”You declare before the world … that you ‘hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’; and yet, you hold securely, in bondage which, according to Thomas Jefferson, ‘is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,’ a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country”Quotation 5: Choose your own QuotationIf you choose this option, select your own quotation from the speech, so that your classmates can respond to it. In addition, provide an appropriate title and briefly explain why you have selected this quote.
