On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, a public condemnation contrasted the nation's founding ideals of liberty and justice with the entrenched practice of chattel slavery. The date was moved from July 4 because the Fourth had become a day of mourning in the Black community and because July 4 fell on a Sunday that year. Nearly six hundred people attended, and the message was widely printed and distributed, selling briskly. The work became a bestseller and remains a frequently recited critique of American hypocrisy, especially during Independence Day observances.
The event was originally set for 4 July 1852, but Douglass insisted it be moved to 5 July because, in the Black community, the Fourth of July had become a day of mourning as it was a date associated with widespread slave auctions throughout the South, held as part of the nation's celebration of independence.
It was an immediate sensation. Almost 600 people were in attendance, and, afterwards, Douglass "had it printed in bulk and sold it in his paper as well as out on the lecture circuit at fifty cents per copy or $6 per hundred" (Blight, 229). It became a bestseller, remains among the most popular of Douglass' works, and continues to be recited today, most often by civil rights activists, around the Fourth of July.
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