Happy July 2-- Part 6: But What Does This Mean to the Slave?

Continued from today's posts on my Running the Blockade:  Civil War Navy blog.

After the War of 1812, this ushered in a new era for the Declaration of Independence as anti-slavery activists began using the rhetoric of the second sentence, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right" to advocate that there should be true equality and no slavery.

In a July 5, 1852, address commemorating the 76th anniversary of the declaration's public release, Frederick Douglas reflected on the July 2 resolution,  "Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution.  They succeeded; and today you reap the fruits of their success."  he asked,  "What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?  I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all the other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim."

--Old Secesh