Question

fellow - citizens, pardon me, 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 the declaration of independence, extended to us us? and am i, therefore, called upon to express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? 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 circle of the glorious anniversary! your independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. the blessings in which you rejoice, are not enjoyed by us. the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, passed down by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. this fourth of july is yours, not mine. you may rejoice, i must mourn. fellow - citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, i hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the joyous shouts that reach them. my subject, then, fellow - citizens, is american slavery. what, to the american slave, is your 4th of july? i answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. adopted from frederick douglass’ “the meaning of the fourth of july to a negro” based on the excerpt, what is the purpose of frederick douglass’s speech? 45. (a) celebrate the fourth of july celebrations 46. celebrate freedom and equality for all americans 47. condemn the existence of slavery in america

Explanation:

Frederick Douglass's speech highlights the stark injustice that the Fourth of July celebrations exclude enslaved Black people, who are denied the freedom and equality the holiday purports to represent. He uses the occasion to expose the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating liberty while upholding slavery, centering the experiences of the oppressed to critique this contradiction.

Answer:

The purpose of Frederick Douglass's speech is to critique the hypocrisy of Fourth of July celebrations, pointing out that the freedom and equality the holiday honors are denied to enslaved people, and to amplify the injustice of American slavery by centering the unheard experiences of the enslaved.