Frederick Douglass - "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

When and where did Frederick Douglass deliver this famous speech?

• 1850 in Atlanta, Georgia

• 1850 in Rochester, New York

• 1818 in Baltimore, Maryland

• 1852 in Rochester, New York

Frederick Douglass was a known abolitionist. What is an abolitionist?

• a person who wanted to end slavery.

• a person who wanted to help endangered animals.

• a person who fought for women's rights.

• a presidential candidate.

Which statement from the speech best reveals the main idea of the speech?

• Throughout the world, America shows the most revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy for its usage of slavery.

• Gross inequalities exist throughout the United States of America, and Independence Day serves to highlight them.

• The Fourth of July is a day that reveals to the American slave the injustice and cruelty of his or her lack of freedom.

• Enslaving people robs them of their essential humanity, which is a God-given right.

In paragraph #1, Douglass states, “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence”? How does this question represent Douglass's appeal to ethos (his credibility)?

• As an elected official, he has credibility to speak for his constituents.

• As a former slave, he has credibility to speak on slaves’ behalf.

• As the head of an abolitionist group, he has credibility to present its views.

• As a minister, he has credibility to present the Christian perspective.

Which of the following inferences is best supported by the following paragraph?

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 glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.

• The speaker is jealous of those who celebrate the Fourth of July.

• The speaker says his people have no reason to celebrate the Fourth of July.

• The speaker loves this country right or wrong.

• The speaker wishes he lived in another country.

Which definition of pale fits with the use of the word in this sentence?

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary!

• adjective - light in color especially relative to others of its kind

• adjective - not bright or brilliant

• noun - an area or the limits within which one is protected or privileged

• noun - a perpendicular stripe on a shield

What is the most accurate paraphrase of the following sentence?

Yet I shall not say one word that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice or who is not at heart a slave-holder, shall not admit to be right and just.

• Nothing that I say today will be heard by those who are prejudice or slave-holders.

• I will not say anything that anybody believes is wrong, unless they are prejudice or a slave-holder.

• Although I have been told to not speak by men whose judgement is blinded by racism, I will still speak because it is right.

The speaker develops his central ideas in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

• describing how he relates, personally, to the issue of slavery

• describing laws against people who are held as slaves

• describing the values and ideals of the United States

• describing the perspectives of slave-holders

In paragraphs 8 and 9, Douglass cites laws that forbid teaching slaves to read and write as evidence that supports the general principle that:

• slavery is immoral

• slavery is not divine

• slaves are entitled to liberty

• slaves are men, not animals

What is most likely the speaker’s reason for listing all of the jobs and professions held by Black people (in paragraph #10)?

• The speaker wants to show how exhausted Black people are from all their labor.

• The speaker has been employed at one time or another in all of these capacities.

• The speaker proves the argument that Black people are intelligent, talented human beings.

• The speaker wishes to show the difference between man and animals.