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“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.”

Source: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, speech in Rochester, New York, 5 July 1852

Context Invited by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, he spoke at Corinthian Hall the day after Independence Day, setting the nation's celebration of liberty against slavery.

Portrait of Frederick Douglass
Frederick DouglassUnited States · 1818–1895
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