弗雷德里克ˇ道格拉斯
(FREDERICK DOUGLASS)

在罗切斯特的独立日演说
Independence Day Speech at Rochester

费城反奴隶学会之执行委员会ˇ1851

公民同胞们ˇ对不起ˇ请允许我问一声ˇ爲什麽今天叫我在这里发言?你们的国家独立与我以及我所代表的人们有何ˇ干?你们的7月4日对美国黑奴有何意义?

弗雷德里克ˇ道格拉斯(1817ˇ1895)是一名杰出的演说家、作家、人道主义者和政治活动家。在废奴运动中他是一个巨人般的人物。他生爲奴隶ˇ从未见过生身父母ˇ是在马里兰州的一个种植园中由祖母带大的。八岁时他被送到巴尔的摩当家奴。在巴尔的摩ˇ女主人教他读书、虽然这是法律禁止的。他二十一岁时逃往纽约市和马萨诸塞州的贝得福德ˇ在那里他将自己的姓氏改爲道格拉斯(原先叫贝利)。

1841年ˇ他被邀请在南特克特的反奴隶制集会上演说。他雄辩的口才令人折服ˇ被马萨诸塞州反奴隶协会聘爲代理人。他成了一名杰出的演说家。有的评论家对他的真实出身表示怀疑ˇ针对于此他于1845年写了自传。但道格拉斯爲了避免自己被认出是逃奴而被捉拿ˇ跑到国外呆了两年ˇ四处演说。回国时他挣了足够的钱赎身爲自由人ˇ并于1847年在纽约的罗切斯特创办了自己的废奴报纸的《北极星》报。

从1841年起ˇ道格拉斯成了美国最著名的黑人废奴主义者。1852年他被邀请在罗切斯特的美国独立纪念日集会上演讲。发言开始时他照老一套赞美了美国开国元勋们衆所周知的功绩ˇ但在演说中途ˇ他话锋一转ˇ提醒听衆说美国黑人没有ˇ受独立ˇ由此可见这个国家的虚僞。听衆举座震惊。

公民同胞们ˇ对不起ˇ请允许我问一声ˇ爲什麽今天叫我在这里发言?你们的国家独立与我以及我所代表的人们有何ˇ干?那个《独立宣言》里所体ˇ的政治自由和天定公道的伟大原则也适用于我们吗?所以ˇ我是否被叫到这里ˇˇ国家的祭坛奉ˇ上我们微不足道的牺牲贡品ˇ然后ˇ由于你们的独立赐福了我们而要我连声谢谢、感恩戴德吗?

爲了你们也爲了我们ˇ但愿上帝真能听到对这些问题的肯定回答。如真是这样ˇ我的任务就容易了ˇ身上的担子也就挑得轻松愉快了。有谁会如此铁石心肠以至于一个国家的慰问都不能使之感动?有谁会如此顽固不化、缺乏感激之心而不感谢得到了这些无估价的恩惠呢ˇ又有谁是如此淡漠和自私ˇ以至于手脚上奴役的锁链被解开时都不放开嗓门高唱这个国家欢乐的的哈利路亚呢ˇ我不是那样的人。在这样的情况下ˇ哑巴都会开口雄辩ˇ”瘸子会ˇ鹿儿般欢跃”起来。

但情况并非如此。我这麽说ˇ是因爲我痛切地感受到我们之间有着差异。今天辉煌的周年盛会是把我们排斥在外的。你们光荣的独立仅仅表明我们之间存有不可逾越的鸿沟。并非所有人都ˇ受到了你们爲之高歌欢唱的种种幸福。你们分ˇ到了你们的先辈留下的正义、自由、繁荣和独立的丰厚遗産ˇ而我却没有。阳光带给你们光明和抚慰ˇ带给我们的却是鞭痕和死亡。7月4日属于你们ˇ而不属于我ˇ你们可欢欣雀跃ˇ而我却要伤心悲叹。将一个身着镣铐的人拖过自由的雄伟光辉的圣殿ˇ叫他和你们一起高唱欢乐的圣歌ˇ不啻是惨无人道的嘲弄和亵渎神明的讽刺。公民们ˇ你们是否是爲了嘲弄我才请我发言的ˇ要是这样ˇ你们要因自己的行爲自食其果的。我要警告你们ˇ不要 覆蹈这样一个国家的前辙ˇ在那里ˇ万能的主一声叹息ˇ这个国家所犯的滔天罪行就倾覆而下ˇ使其永世夷爲废墟ˇ今天ˇ我要把一个皮肉活剥、饱受苦难的民族的悲叹之声传达给你们ˇ

“在巴比伦河之滨ˇ我们落坐。是啊ˇˇ起锡安山ˇ我们哭泣着。我们把我们的竖琴悬挂在柳树上ˇ因爲就在此地ˇ将我们沦爲俘虏的人要我们唱一支歌ˇˇˇ我们的人叫我们欢笑起来ˇ他们说ˇ唱一支锡安山的歌吧ˇ但我们怎能在一块陌生的土地上唱起主的赞美歌呢ˇ噢ˇ耶路撤冷ˇ如果我竟忘掉了你就让我的右手瘫痪吧ˇ如果我忘掉了你ˇ就让我的舌头粘在上腭顶吧ˇ”

公民同胞们ˇ在你们举国喧ˇ的欢乐声中ˇ我听到成百上千万人的哀号ˇ他们身上的锁链ˇ昨日已是沉重难忍了ˇ而今日ˇ你们的欢乐声又使他们的苦痛愈发难熬。如果我真的忘记了ˇ如果我不能切切牢记那些今日尚流淌着鲜血的孩子们ˇ那麽ˇ“就让我的右手瘫痪吧ˇ就让我的舌头粘在上腭顶吧ˇ”如果忘了他们ˇ如果对他们的屈辱置若罔闻ˇ如果还在此与衆人一块同声鸣唱ˇ就无异于最可耻、最耸人听闻的背叛ˇ就会使自己在上帝和世人面前受尽谴责。因此ˇ公民同胞们ˇ我发言的主题是美国的奴隶制。我要从奴隶的角度ˇ来看今日此时ˇ以及它对公衆的意义ˇ我身同美国黑奴ˇ他们的屈辱就是我的屈辱。我以自己的整个心灵ˇ毫不犹豫地声明ˇ在我看来ˇ今天这个7月4日里ˇ这个国家的黑暗德性和罪行ˇˇ得从所未见地鲜明昭著ˇ不论我们的回顾美国往日的声明ˇ还是倾听其今日的诺言ˇ它的所作所爲都同样ˇ骇人听闻、令人作呕。美国对过去是虚僞的ˇ对ˇ在是是虚僞的ˇ对未来也恣意虚僞。此时此地ˇ我站在上帝和遍体鳞伤、鲜血淋淋的黑奴一边ˇ以惨遭 凌辱的人性之名义ˇ以身着桎梏的自由之名义ˇ以受到抛弃和践踏的《ˇ法》和《圣经》之名义ˇ挺身而出ˇ尽我具备的所有力量ˇ对一切使奴隶制ˇˇ深重的罪孽、美国的耻辱ˇˇ永世永存的企图发出我的抗议ˇ发出我的谴责ˇ“我不闪烁其辞ˇ我不会客套ˇ”ˇ我要用的是我最激烈的言辞ˇ而任何判断力不受偏见所蒙蔽的人ˇ任何内心里不ˇ继续奴役黑人的人ˇ都会承认我说的每句话都是正确的、公道的。

然而ˇ我没ˇ到我的有些听衆会说ˇ“正是ˇ在ˇ你和你的废奴主义兄弟们没给公衆以良好印ˇ。如果你们能多说理少责难ˇ多劝戒训斥ˇ你们事业成功的希望就大得多了。”但是ˇ我认爲ˇ当一切都ˇ而易见时ˇ说什麽道理就是多余的了。关于反奴隶制的纲领你们要我说明哪一点呢ˇ这个问题在哪一个枝节上我们的国民还需要点拨呢ˇ我还须着手证明奴隶也是人吗ˇ这点已属公认ˇ没人有所怀疑。奴隶主们在实施他们政府的法律时都承认了这一点。当他们惩罚奴隶们的反抗时就承认了这一点。维吉尼亚州列出七十二ˇ罪行ˇ一黑人 (无论他多麽不知情) 犯了其中任何一ˇ都要处以极刑ˇ而其中只有两ˇ才能使一个白人受到同样惩罚。这不正说明了奴隶是有道德、有理智、有责任的人吗ˇ奴隶具有人性ˇ这也属公认。事实证明了奴隶的人性ˇ南方的法令条例都规定禁止教育奴隶读书写字ˇ否则将受到高额罚款和严厉的处置。假如你们能指出有谁曾对田耕作的牛马也规定过这样的法律ˇ那麽也许我会同意讨论奴隶是否有人性。假如街上的小狗、空中的飞鸟、山上的牛羊、海里的游角、地上的爬虫都分辨不出奴隶和野兽的区别ˇ那麽我会和你们讨论奴隶是不是人的ˇ

此时此刻ˇ只要肯定黑色人种同样具备人性也就足够了。我们耕耘、种植、收获ˇ我们使用各种器械工具ˇ建房、修桥、造船ˇ我们利用各种金属ˇ铜、铁、金、银ˇ 我们读书、写字、计算ˇ我们当职员、商人、秘书ˇ我们中间有律师、医生、牧师、诗人、作家、编辑、演说家和教师ˇ我们从事其它人所从事的一切活动ˇ在加利福尼亚开金采矿、在太平洋里捕鲸捉鱼、在山坡上放养牛羊ˇ我们生活着、奔忙着、行动着、思考着、计划着ˇ在家中我们是丈夫、妻子、儿女。最重要的是ˇ我们承认和崇奉基督教的上帝ˇ期求来世的洪福永生。而在此情况下ˇ还要我们证明我们是人ˇ岂不今人惊讶万分ˇ

难道你们要我证明人有自由的权利ˇ证明人是自身的正当主人?你们早巳声明如此了。我还须证明奴隶制的邪恶吗?这对共和主义者们还是个问题吗?这个问题竟如此困难ˇ需要推敲其道义原则的合适性ˇ这样深奥难解以至于要展开逻辑分析和辩论吗?当着美国人的面ˇ我要是在发言中对此问题条分缕析、又核对又实证、又否定又肯定地证明人生来ˇ有自由ˇ那麽我会给你们以什麽印ˇ呢?这样做我会ˇ得荒唐可笑ˇ也是对你们的理解力的不尊不敬。在天穹底下无人不ˇ奴隶制对他是不公正的。

将人变爲野兽、剥夺他们的自由、使他们劳无所获、使他们对自己与他人的关系一无所知、对他们棍棒交加、用皮鞭抽打他们的肉体、将他们的四肢锁上镣铐、带着狼犬 追捕他们、把他们拍卖于集市、让他们妻离子散、敲碎他们的牙齿、燎烙他们的皮肤、用饥饿迫使他们听话而屈从于主人ˇˇ还用得着我来证明这一切都是不公正的吗?我还须证明一个血腥 污臭的制度是邪恶的吗?不ˇ我不愿。我的时间和精力要花在更值得于的事情上ˇ而不是用来作此求证。

那麽ˇ还剩下什麽需要论证呢?要证明奴隶制不是天意、上帝并没有建立它吗?要证明我们的神学博士们是错的吗?这样ˇ本身就是亵渎。非人道的东西不会是天意!有谁能够以此爲题作出论证?那些能做到这一点的人也许会这样做ˇ但我不能。ˇ在已不是作此论证的时候了。

今日此刻ˇ需要的是灼热的钢铁ˇ而非今人信服的论证。啊ˇ要是我有此能力ˇ要是我能让全国都听到我的呼声ˇ今天我就会以滚滚巨流之势发出我尖刻无情的嘲笑、粉碎一切的谴责ˇ摧枯拉朽的讽刺ˇ声色俱厉的训斥。因爲我们需要的不是光亮。而是火焰ˇ我们需要的不是和风细雨ˇ而是电闪雷鸣。我们要风暴ˇ要 飓风ˇ要地震。国家的感情必须激励ˇ国家的良知必须唤醒ˇ国家的温良必须打破ˇ国家的虚僞必须揭露。它对上帝和人类犯下的罪行必须公之于衆ˇ加以迎头痛击。

你们的7月4日对美国黑奴有何意义?我的回答是ˇ一年之中ˇ没有哪一天比今日更使他们感到让自己无时不被沦爲牺牲品的那种滔天的不公和残忍了。对他们来说ˇ你们的庆典是欺人之道ˇ你们鼓吹的自由是放肆的亵渎ˇ你们的国家的伟大是虚荣的浮夸ˇ你们的喜庆欢悦是空虚和无情的ˇ你们对暴君的谴责是不要脸的厚顔无耻ˇ你们自由平等的欢呼声是空洞的冒牌货ˇ你们的祈祷和赞美诗ˇ你们的布道和感恩ˇ加上所有的宗教游行和仪式ˇ不过是面对上帝的装腔作态、虚假欺骗、不虔的亵渎和虚僞的做作ˇˇ不过是在野蛮人都会感到羞耻的罪行上覆盖的一层薄薄的纱巾。此时此刻ˇ世界上还没有任何一个野蛮民族ˇ没有任何一个其它民族ˇˇ美国人那样犯下了如此骇人听闻、鲜血淋淋的罪恶勾当。

不论你们走到哪里ˇ不论你们在哪里寻觅ˇ游遍旧大陆的所有君主国和专制国家ˇ踏遍整个南美洲ˇ收集所有残忍的记录直至穷尽ˇ然后把你们的调查结果与美国每天发生的事作个比较ˇ你们就会与我一样得出结论ˇ在令人发指的野蛮和厚顔无耻的僞善方面ˇ美国的确是举世无双了。

Independence Day Speech at Rochester

Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? 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?

    Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

    But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

    "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can -we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

    Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth"! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine. I do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery--the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate, I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

   But I fancy I hear someone of my audience say. "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain, there is nothing to be argued. What point in the antislavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that the Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea and the reptiles that crawl shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

    For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that, while we are reading, writing, and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

    Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look today, in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do so would be to make myself ridiculous and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

    What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

    What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can may; I cannot. The time for such argument is past.

   At a time like this, scorching iron, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. 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.

    What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.

    Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.