'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?'

Frederick Douglass's fiery Independence Day speech is widely read today, but not so widely understood.

July 2, 2014 7:08 p.m. ET

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass—once called America's most famous fugitive slave—delivered a speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, N.Y. His oration is often considered a radical denunciation of America's political tradition; he characterized the Fourth of July as a hypocritical sham from the point of view of the millions living in the country who were still enslaved.

The speech, which is now widely titled "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?," has become a staple of high-school and...

Available to WSJ.com Subscribers