1/ It has become common in recent years to quote Frederick Douglass's great 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass was scathing in denouncing white Americans of his day who were complicit in slavery while celebrating liberty.
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/docume…
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/docume…
2/ Yet Douglass insisted that while the Founders may have been flawed, they were also heroic: "The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men," he said. "It does not often happen to a nation to raise at one time such a number of truly great men."
3/ "They were statesmen, patriots and heroes," Douglass said of those who signed the Declaration in 1776. "They loved their country better than their own private interests.… Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country." 
4/ Nor did Douglass regard the Constitution as a hypocritical pact with slavery: "In that instrument I hold there is neither warrant, license, nor sanction of the hateful thing; but, interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT."
5/ "I do not despair of this country," Douglass said. He knew that "the doom of slavery is certain," thanks to "the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions."
Douglass hated slavery, but he deeply loved America.
Douglass hated slavery, but he deeply loved America.
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