Denson 1 Joshua Denson @02710326 Ms.

Atkins ENG 002-17 9 December, 2013 No Celebration for the Negro Nation The Fourth of July is viewed as a day of celebration and love for our country. Every year we as Americans come together, shoot fireworks, and enjoy each others company in the thought that 237 years ago America was freed from English control. However, America was not totally free. Blacks were still enslaved by their white counterparts for 86 more years. So should the holiday be referred to Independence Day*, with an asterisk? Negros were not free. Fourth of July is not relevant to blacks because on an individual basis blacks were not free. Black celebration of the Fourth of July is a mockery to the Black diaspora. Frederick Douglass states that the 4th of July is, 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 (Douglass 376). Frederick Douglass was correct in saying that The Fourth of July is not a celebration to African Americans, but actually a torment. Negros were still enslaved after the Fourth of July. They were not independent. The whole nation was not free until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, therefore the Fourth of July holds no meaning to the Black American. The risk and disrespect of African Americans by Blacks celebrating this holiday is that this is what we in 2013 define as a Black mans freedom. It is the upmost disgrace to say slavery qualifies as freedom to African Americans. Independence by definition is freedom from outside control or support: the state of being independent (Merriam-Webster). By July 4th being the nations Independence Day, it is

Denson 2 implying that everyone was free in 1776. This was obviously not the case. Blacks were still tortured for almost 100 more years after this. This holidays name is a bold lie. Blacks everywhere are encouraged to celebrate this mockery to blacks, with the apparent truth always being swiftly overlooked. Slavery is always the elephant in the room when Independence Day is celebrated. After the signing of the Declaration of independence, Blacks were still oppressed. Even though foreign slave trade was denounced, internal slave-trade was still alive and vibrant. America put on a faade that it was a horrendous act and that the wrath of the Nation on whoever participates in foreign slave trade, but was shipping Blacks all throughout America. They not only still had internal slave-trade, but the encouraged and honored it. Blacks were still treated as property and worked to death for years after the Declaration of Independence. This is not freedom. By saying that July 4th was the start of freedom, meant that Blacks were not important enough to be considered as part of the nations progression of being freed. Now seeing that Blacks are human instead of property and that African Americans are American citizens, this is not the countrys true Independence Day. The Fourth of July cannot possibly be the true day of independence for the country because the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves from slavery. If one is enslaved, then he or she is clearly not free. This being said, January 1 would fit as a better Independence Day because all of Americas inhabitants were legally free. According to The Fourth of July and Black Americans in the Nineteenth Century: Northern Leadership Opinion Within the Context of the Black Experience of the Journal of Negro History, for years Blacks have produced other ways to protest or celebrate the Fourth of July. Others [blacks] boycotted the day, preferring to honor days which warranted sincere black celebration such as January 1, a day first celebrated in 1808 when foreign slave trade was

Denson 3 abolished and later reaffirmed as a day of celebration occasioned by Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Perhaps the most popular northern alternative to July 4 after 1834 was August 1, West Indian Emancipation Day. Another Afro-American tradition deferred celebrating July 4 until July 5, when blacks could symbolically express their alienation from the promises of July 4 and when they could safely congregate without hazarding the drunken wrath of Fourth Of July white mobs. Whatever shape of the celebrations, the Fourth of July expressed itself to black Americans in terms opposite to what it was intended to express (The Journal of Negro History 259). For years Blacks have took offense to the holiday and worked their way around celebrating the holiday. The importance in finding other ways to celebrate Independence Day is that the era from July 4, 1776 to January 1, 1863 could not humanly be described as freedom to the Negro race, therefore not making all of America Independent. Fredrick Douglasss claim that The Fourth of July has no worth to the Black American does have a flaw though. It can be said that the Fourth of July is a celebration of the actual countrys independence of outside control, rather than the individual independence of the citizens. In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain (A&E Television Networks, LLC). This would mean that The Fourth of July would be relevant to every American citizen, regardless of their ethnicity. If one would take this stand, then by definition the Fourth of July would be relevant to every American citizen. As described by Fredrick Douglass, the Fourth of July holds no meaning to the Black Nation and should not be celebrated as the nations Independence Day. On July 4, 1776, Blacks were enslaved for near 100 more years. By saying July 4th is the nations Independence Day is saying that Negros were not relevant enough to be counted in that national accomplishment or

Denson 4 that slavery was good enough to be a Black mans definition of freedom. Neither assumption is acceptable. The Fourth of July should not be considered as the nations Independence Day and it should not be celebrated on that day. Due to not all of Americas citizens being free in 1776, another date should be offered as the countrys true day of freedom.

Denson 5 Works Cited

Sweet, Leonard I. "The Journal of Negro History." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Redd, Teresa M. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." Revelations: An Anthology of Expository Essays by and about Blacks. Needham Heights, MA: Ginn, 1991. N. pag. Print Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013