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Quotes
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an orator and abolitionist who became famous for his incisive anti-slavery speeches. In “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Douglass offers a criticism of the eponymous holiday after being…
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The Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers are repeatedly discussed by Douglass throughout his speech, particularly when discussing America’s past. Douglass praises the Founding Fathers due to their accomplishments in the Revolutionary War and their writing of the Declaration…
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Sophia Auld
Sophia Auld was Douglass’s mistress in childhood. Although Douglass was technically her slave, he remembered her as being kind to him, going so far as to educate him. In his speech, Douglass recounts that…
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Pro-Slavery Ministers
In criticizing the pro-slavery American church, Douglass lists off the names of various influential ministers who support the Fugitive Slave Law. Their names are as follows: John Chase Lord, Gardiner Spring, Leonard Elijah Lathrop…
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Minor Characters
Austin Woolfolk
Woolfolk was the owner of a major slave market in Baltimore, where Douglass spent much of his childhood. According to Douglass, Woolfolk would hire agents to travel across Maryland in order to buy Black people and bring them back to the market to be sold.
Abolitionist Ministers
Although Douglass expresses little hope for the American church, he also expresses gratitude for the handful of explicitly abolitionist ministers he knows: Henry Ward Beecher; Samuel Joseph May; and Reverend Robert R. Raymond, Douglass’s personal friend who is on the stage during his speech.
