korrents · books

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)

Frederick Douglass · 5 Jul 1852

The book opens with

The Fourth of July is his free audience's celebration, not his; they may rejoice, while he must mourn

Their wordsThis Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.

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Frederick Douglass did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this book, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The book prints chapter headings its extracted text does not preserve, so the claims below are in the book's order but not grouped. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
The Fourth of July is his free audience's celebration, not his; they may rejoice, while he must mourn

Their wordsThis Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.
Our reading
America is false to its past and present declarations of liberty, and binds itself to be false to the future

Their wordsWhether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Our reading
Where everything is plain, there is nothing to be argued

Their wordsBut, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued.
Our reading
For now, it is enough to affirm the equal humanity of the Black race

Their wordsFor the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race.
Our reading
Every man alive knows that slavery is wrong for himself

Their wordsThere is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.
Our reading
What is inhuman cannot be divine

Their wordsThat which is inhuman cannot be divine.
Our reading
At a time like this, scorching irony rather than convincing argument is needed

Their wordsAt a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
Our reading
No nation on earth is guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than the United States at this time

Their wordsThere is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.