What, to someone like me, is the Fourth of July?

Frederick Douglass, the Declaration of Independence, Disability, and the American Experiment

Jul 04, 2024

I’m going to do something a bit different today.

I tend to avoid getting too political because nurturing our children, keeping them safe, and promoting inclusion and acceptance shouldn’t be a political issue. But sometimes we have to pivot.

In various stages of my life, I have aligned with both the left and the right. But these days I find myself feeling politically homeless. It’s hard for many of us to feel hopeful when so many of our fellow humans are hurting and suffering around the world. It feels impossible when so many families are torn apart because of abuses of power.

At the same time, I want to recognize that there are a lot of amazing things about being American. That I could choose to say less-than-favorable things about our leadership and not get arrested is one of them. While it feels like a low bar, it’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. We have historically had relatively peaceful transitions of leadership at every level of government, though recent years paint a different picture. My marriage is legal—it’s a relatively recent thing that the UN declared it, and even more recent that anti-miscegenation laws were deemed unconstitutional in America, but laws like that are still on the books in other parts of the world. These are just a few examples.

All that being said, as we’re preparing for a pool party and delighting in the warm weather, I’m reflecting today on a Fourth of July practice that my husband has had for years. For as long as I’ve known him, he takes time around the 4th to read both the Declaration of Independence and Frederick Douglass’s speech, “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”

My husband reading the Declaration of Independence while visiting friends. Large version of the document provided by their children.

He doesn’t know I’m writing this, and I’m not sure he realizes that I’ve actually been paying attention when he reads them. (My brain is so driven by novelty—I didn’t understand why we would need to read and re-read these every year.)

My husband is a passionate and patriotic man, and he also doesn’t want to discount the painful aspects of our country’s history and the work that is still left to be done. I’m mostly writing this in the Notes app on my phone, and I’m mostly writing from my own reading of these documents and some of the conversations we’ve had over the years, so if you’re reading this, please add to this conversation in comments or by messaging me.

Douglass gave this speech 76 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, 11 years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and 13 years before the 13th amendment would be passed and ratified, officially ending slavery.

For context, the time between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Douglass’s speech is as close in history to us as 1949—when Truman was president, it was the early days of the Cold War, and the civil rights movement was just beginning to gain momentum.

There’s so much that could be said about both the document and the speech, but I’ll try to be brief.

Douglass begins by talking about the achievements of the American Revolution and work of the Founding Fathers, but his tone quickly shifts to remind his audience (the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society) that these celebrations and principles don’t extend to enslaved African Americans. He condemns and criticizes both the government and the church for being complicit in slavery.

Over the years as I’ve listened to John Henry read these aloud, I have often wondered what this all means for someone like me in America today. I’m not an expert on politics/policy or American history. I have had a lot of practice holding opposing things in tension. I have experienced an immense amount of privilege in my life, yet I’m autistic and have had experiences that I can only describe as horribly racist.

I think the American experiment is a good one, AND I think there’s merit (and often urgency) in continually reflecting and refining the “experiment” in new and unprecedented ways to ensure that the rights and freedoms of all Americans are protected.

I think about our capacity to hold things in tension, and to hold this speech up against the Declaration of Independence—a document that begins with a statement about equality and unalienable rights.

Douglass acknowledges that these principles of equality and unalienable rights aren’t extended to African Americans and points out the hypocrisy of celebrating liberty while enslaving people. In his speech, he echoes the rhetoric and sentiment of the Declaration of Independence, calling for radical change and reminding them of the right to resist and revolt against unjust treatment.

I wonder if we can challenge ourselves similarly when we notice injustice or oppression. Are we conscious of our rights—of the imperative to make change when things feel unjust?

Are we aware of principles that we believe are universally applied but in practice are actually not accessible to everyone? I find this especially relevant in the context of disability: how many spaces, services, and opportunities that we say are “for everyone” but are not actually accessible to individuals with disabilities?

I’ll end with a few quotes from both for your reflection:

From the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

From Douglass’s speech: “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 that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?”

From the Declaration of Independence: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government."

From Douglass’s speech: “For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”

Here are links to the full text of both if you’d like to read them yourself:

Neurodivergent Motherhood

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