The essence of this paper requires a contrast and comparison view on two important historical articles; Fredrick Douglass “What to the slave is the fourth of July” and David Walker’s “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World”. The essay will attempt to discuss the very famous speech Fredrick Douglas made in 1952 as well as David’s Walker’s appeal while comparing and contrasting both the appeal and the speech. Afterward, a summary will be given and a conclusion will be drawn.
As we look throughout history, one would argue that we couldn’t find a more appalling and unjust act as that of slavery. Slavery played a major role of not only history but of an innumerable amount of American people. In David Walker’s appeal and Fredrick Douglass what to the slave is the fourth of July, men and women of African American descent struggle with the reality of slavery and the cruel results and affect it had on people like themselves.
Fredrick Douglas was one of the most influential African Americans of his day, in spite of his inauspicious beginning, he was born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland where he was called Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey. Douglas always suspected that his father was his mother’s white owner, Captain Aaron Anthony. He spent his early childhood in privation on the plantation then he was sent to work as a house slave for the auld family in Baltimore. There, he came in contact with printed literature and quickly realized the relationship between literacy and personal freedom. With help from Mrs. Auld, Douglas learned how to read and write. In 1833, the Aulds, sent him back to the plantation, where he soon acquired a reputation for the resistance and more submissive, Douglass owner sent him to Edward covey, a ‘slave breaker’ paid to discipline and train obedient slaves. Instead of cowing Douglas, the experience with covey only strengthened Douglas resolve to acquire his freedom. In 1838, at the age of 20, Douglas escaped to the north and settled Rochester, New York in 1847 and began to champion equality and freedom for slaves in earnest.
On July 5, 1852 approximately 3-5 million African Americans were enslaved – roughly 14% of the total population of the United States. That was the state of the nation when Fredrick Douglas was asked to deliver a keynote address at the Independence Day celebration. He accepted, on the day white Americans celebrated their independence and freedom from the oppression of the British crown. Douglas delivered his now famous speech what to the slave is the fourth of July. In it, Douglass offered the most though provoking and powerful testaments to hypocrisy, prejudice and inhumanity of slavery ever given.
Furthermore, David walker was born to a free mother and an enslaved father; he inherited his mother’s status as free. Walker witnessed the misery of slavery in his native state and during his travels in the south, including one episode where a son was forced to whip his mother until she died. He settled in Boston in the 1820’s where he established a secondhand clothing business and became the most noted abolitionist in Boston, associated with the abolitionist groups Prince Hall Freemasonry, Massachusetts General Colored Association and the newspaper, Freedom’s journal. In 1929, he published the first of three editions of his appeal in four articles; together with a preamble, to the colored citizens of the world, but in particular and very expressly to those of the United States of America. This fiery pamphlet violently and explicitly condemned whites for the institution of chattel slavery. Walker’s appeal, which called for slaves to rebel against their masters on the basis of reclaiming their humanity and on the principles of Christianity, resonated strongly with free and enslaved blacks throughout the country. Walker’s central theme was a call for the unity amongst slaves and the immediate need to rebel against their masters. In order to communicate his central theme, Walker boldly attacked the fundamental values of the United States society by revealing the hypocrisy of having the institution of chattel slavery.
In the decades preceding the Civil War, many free blacks spoke out passionately, opposing slavery through literature and spoken word. Two such works are "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July, a speech by Fredrick Douglass, and David Walker's Appeal by David Walker. Although written nearly twenty years apart, these two pieces contain many similar aspects. These aspects are seen in both their themes and phrasing. Douglas' and Walker's pieces can be most easily understood through the comparison of the outrages they both call attention to and their relationship to the hypocrisy of religion and government. This then contrasted with the audience they were intended for.
Therefore, some of the comparisons between Fredrick Douglass speech and David walker’s speech are as follows; Firstly, The Church had “made itself the earthwork of American slavery”, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Both Douglass and Walker held the church in great contempt for not only condoning slavery but essentially supporting it. In both pieces, many biblical references were made. Each document pointed out that the church had “shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system” and taught that man may, properly, be a slave; and that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God. Walker also accuses the church of leading people to believe “that heaven had designed blacks and their children to be slaves and beasts of burden to them and their children”. The two men shared a common view that in the eyes of God, slavery was an abomination. Another shared view was the hypocrisy of our governmental values which we as Americans hold so dearly.
Secondly, The American government was founded on the principles of freedom and the belief that every man has his own inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence states that “All men are created equal.”  Both of Walker and Douglass were quick to look right through these empty statements and point out that in America all men are not “created equal”. "Compare your own language extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us--men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!”
Thirdly, Reading through both of these pieces the words tyranny and oppression come up many times. These were common feelings among abolitionists. Often in these pieces the authors make use of irony to say that this is taking place in "tyrant-killing, king-hating, people-loving, democratic, Christian America. This point is illustrated in Douglass rhetorical question, "Now, Americans! I ask you candidly, was your sufferings under Great Britain, one hundredth parts as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered ours under you?”
Fourthly, both men are ex-slaves and abolitionists who believe that the act of slavery is seemingly normal towards cruelty of religious slaveholders. . Frederick speaks on his personal experiences in trying to teach his brethren to read the word of God:
“It was understood among all who came, that there must be as little display about it as possible. It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael’s unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whiskey, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings.”

Furthermore, Walker uses a black nationalistic rhetoric to echo the ideas of liberty for all men which Jefferson calls "divine and natural law" while emphasizing the need for black unity as the only means to overcome slavery for these "chosen people of God". To achieve this unity, Walker established the need to overcome ignorance and the urgency in stopping black mental and physical subordination to the white man.
Douglass not only chastised white America for slavery, but he also urged that blacks come together and help themselves. He mentioned that the black people should not think that slavery is God's will, but that soon, God will one day deliver them from the hands of slavery. As Douglass says:

"We have no organization among ourselves," he lamented, but we are divided by jealousy into petty factions. The "ignorant colored clergy" were partly responsible "for the apathy of the colored people to their own cause" because they preached passive otherworldly social messages to the people, especially the "absurd notion to expect God to deliver us from bondage. We must elevate ourselves by our own efforts," Douglass challenged the blacks, because God helps those who help themselves.
In addition to the comparisons, there are but a few differences. The most apparent difference of these two pieces is in the audience for which they were intended. Both Walker and Douglas were religious men who took Christianity and the message of God to heart but they were also men who lived in a time when white Americans didn’t want them to read the word of God for themselves and punished them frequently for doing so, sometimes, for even being religious at all. The cruel times they lived in shaped their views on Christianity, their struggles to learn it and come to terms with its role in their lives, and how they applied it to African Americans as a people. Walker's appeal was directed to his “brethren”. It called for them to rise up and speak out much like he did. Copies of his book being found in the possession of slaves led to the tighter laws against teaching slaves to read and the distribution of such material in the many southern states. He attempted to inform the uninformed of what was happening to them and berated those who were “ignorantly in league with slaveholders or tyrants”. The slaveholders knew from experiences with other educated blacks such as Douglass and Walker that it would lead to an uprising.
On the other hand, Douglass' speech was given to remind his audience of liberty's unfinished business. His audience was much different than that of Walker's appeal. He spoke to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society at Rochester Hall. His speech was fiery to say the very least. At parts it was rather sarcastic in its criticism of the church and government. This speech was given in the decade leading up to the civil war and tensions were at all-time highs. Many of the things he said, Walker might not have for fear of retribution. Douglass' remarks were chiefly directed towards our forefathers and the ministers of our nation. Much of it would not have been taken too kindly to twenty years earlier when Walker’s document was written. He stated that the ministers were “stupidly blind” and that the fathers of our country had “stooped when writing the constitution” and was the veriest imposters that ever practiced on mankind.  Walker's audience was convinced a change was needed while Douglass' knew it was inevitable.
By looking at the similarities of the men's views of how slavery relates to religion and government as well as the differences of their intended audiences it is easier to understand these two works. These two pieces were instrumental in promotion of the liberty of slaves. They affected blacks as well as whites. In the decades leading up to the civil war, more and more controversy was brought about largely due to these two pieces. Not only were people’s feelings on slavery changing but so were they're views on African-Americans. To many, they were no longer “the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began”. For the first time in the history of the United States, more than a handful of people started to see them as humans who ought to have the same inalienable rights that the Declaration of Independence spoke of nearly seventy-five years earlier.
Both men had issues with Christianity as it was practiced in America. Douglas went as far to say that there was a distinct difference between the “Christianity of this land” and the “Christianity of Christ”. Walker went further when he spoke on how those slain by the hand of God for their wickedness in Sodom and Gomorrah would come down upon the white Americans, Bibles in hand, and condemn them for the things they have done. Walker was also known for pointing out Scripture that calls for a man to be put to death for hurting or killing a Christian and applying this in comparison to all the violent crimes acted out against black slaves by white Americans for reading the Bible or practicing its teachings. Walker focused on how Christianity could point out the wrongs of the slave owners. He believed that white Americans secretly knew in their hearts that blacks were also men since God made man in his image and a man is a man despite his color. While Walker was pointing out scripture to white Americans to make his points, Frederick’s comment clearly shows that he felt that the two faiths shouldn’t even be seen the same. These separate views caused them both to approach Christianity differently despite many other similarities.
In addition, it is inevitable to feel the sense of desperation and quietness about the procedure and the importance in the hearts of these slaves. Douglas later notes, with great bitterness, that the meetings were eventually broken up and with great violence. These can be seen in examples, how Walker speaks to his readers with an imploring hope and that Frederick speaks with bitterness and with a sense of demanding action. This is likely a cause of their differences in how they view slavery, Christianity and oppression and its place in America since a view of using Christianity and the Bible as methods to argue with the whites lends to Walker a way to attempt to console black slaves and to implore white slave owners to reconsider their ways. On the contrary, Douglas’ views on Christianity as an abomination in this land and utterly separate from the way it is practiced among the black slaves, gives him the standpoint of fighting for freedom against the white Americans, as opposed to Walker’s method of working with them for a solution.
Both men, as ex-slaves and abolitionists, spoke out to their brethren about Christianity and its place in their lives. Walker does this by comparing the views of Mr. Clay and Bishop Allen. Mr. Clay believed that America should send the slaves back to Africa to spread Christianity there and that doing so would “cleanse” America of her acts of theft, murder and slavery which, as Mr. Clay puts it, “we had been the innocent cause of inflicting.” Walker compares this desire with the words of Bishop Allen who questions how uneducated freed black men are supposed to civilize or Christianize anyone in Africa when they have been denied instruction on how to accomplish this feat. Walker goes on at length in praising Bishop Allen and calling him a brother to all African Americans in his actions. Douglas, on the other hand, which Walker happens to agree with? He believed that they used their faith as justification for their actions and that this made them deplorable. Douglas spoke on the Christmas season and how, were it taken away from slaves that a slave uprising would immediately result. He believed that this season was important to religious slaves and nonreligious slaves alike in that it gave them time to get their affairs in order, religious or otherwise, as well as have time to relax from the never-ending duties of slave life. The importance of this holiday season, as stressed by Douglas, was an important aspect of slave life, and, as such, is evidence of the impact Christianity had for the slaves despite whether or not they were Christian themselves. He goes on to talk about Christianity as a beam of light that can educate a slave and bring him from his place of degradation to a place of dignity. Douglas writes, “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to, annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
To summarize, the important notion of David walker’s appeal and Fredrick Douglass speech can be said to be the most powerful yet provoking testaments. Written and expressed in the 19th century. In his APPEAL, Walker tells "colored citizens" to ever make an attempt to gain freedom or natural right, from under our cruel oppressors and murderers, until you see your ways clear; when that hour arrives and you move, be not afraid or dismayed." (17) The Biblical injunction "be not afraid or dismayed" is from 2 Chronicles 20.15, where the Israelites are told God would save them. The Israelites are expected to pray, "But Walker asserts that the Negro must 'move.' ... they must and implicit in Walker's language is the assumption that they will take action and move to claim what is rightfully and morally theirs." White Americans committed the sin of willfully turning "colored people of these United States" into "the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began. Douglas on the other hand, Douglass’s oration shows how white slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being. They believed that blacks were inherently incapable of participating in civil society and thus should be kept as workers for whites. The Narrative explains the strategies and procedures by which whites gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward. Slave owners keep slaves ignorant of basic facts about themselves, such as their birth date or their paternity. This enforced ignorance robs children of their natural sense of individual identity.
In conclusion, it can be said that both Douglass and walker though ex slaves and abolitionists and years apart managed to speak to different audiences but their inspiring stories and their strong and powerful orations on slavery, oppression, Christianity as well as what at their time period made slavery so ignorantly wrong. Both The speech and the appeal endure as one of the most articulate expressions of what it means to be excluded from the republican experiment that resulted in the democracy of the United States. Yet, beyond a condemnation of slavery, the speech endures because Douglass adopted a hopeful tone, believing that the United States would be more complete once slavery ended.