弗雷德裏克‧道格拉斯
(FREDERICK DOUGLASS)

在羅切斯特的獨立日演說
Independence Day Speech at Rochester

費城反奴隸學會之執行委員會，1851

公民同胞們，對不起，請允許我問一聲：為什麼今天叫我在這裏發言?你們的國家獨立與我以及我所代表的人們有何相干?你們的7月4日對美國黑奴有何意義?

弗雷德裏克‧道格拉斯(1817─1895)是一名傑出的演說家、作家、人道主義者和政治活動家。在廢奴運動中他是一個巨人般的人物。他生為奴隸，從未見過生身父母，是在馬里蘭州的一個種植園中由祖母帶大的。八歲時他被送到巴爾的摩當家奴。在巴爾的摩，女主人教他讀書、雖然這是法律禁止的。他二十一歲時逃往紐約市和麻塞諸塞州的貝得福德，在那裏他將自己的姓氏改為道格拉斯(原先叫貝利)。

1841年，他被邀請在南特克特的反奴隸制集會上演說。他雄辯的口才令人折服，被麻塞諸塞州反奴隸協會聘為代理人。他成了一名傑出的演說家。有的評論家對他的真實出身表示懷疑，針對於此他於1845年寫了自傳。但道格拉斯為了避免自己被認出是逃奴而被捉拿，跑到國外呆了兩年，四處演說。回國時他掙了足夠的錢贖身為自由人，並於1847年在紐約的羅切斯特創辦了自己的廢奴報紙的《北極星》報。

從1841年起，道格拉斯成了美國最著名的黑人廢奴主義者。1852年他被邀請在羅切斯特的美國獨立紀念日集會上演講。發言開始時他照老一套讚美了美國開國元勳們眾所周知的功績，但在演說中途，他話鋒一轉，提醒聽眾說美國黑人沒有享受獨立，由此可見這個國家的虛偽。聽眾舉座震驚。

公民同胞們，對不起，請允許我問一聲：為什麼今天叫我在這裏發言?你們的國家獨立與我以及我所代表的人們有何相干?那個《獨立宣言》裏所體現的政治自由和天定公道的偉大原則也適用於我們嗎?所以，我是否被叫到這裏，向國家的祭壇奉獻上我們微不足道的犧牲貢品，然後，由於你們的獨立賜福了我們而要我連聲謝謝、感恩戴德嗎?

為了你們也為了我們，但願上帝真能聽到對這些問題的肯定回答。如真是這樣，我的任務就容易了，身上的擔子也就挑得輕鬆愉快了。有誰會如此鐵石心腸以至於一個國家的慰問都不能使之感動?有誰會如此頑固不化、缺乏感激之心而不感謝得到了這些無估價的恩惠呢？又有誰是如此淡漠和自私，以至於手腳上奴役的鎖鏈被解開時都不放開嗓門高唱這個國家歡樂的的哈利路亞呢？我不是那樣的人。在這樣的情況下，啞巴都會開口雄辯，」瘸子會像鹿兒般歡躍」起來。

但情況並非如此。我這麼說，是因為我痛切地感受到我們之間有著差異。今天輝煌的週年盛會是把我們排斥在外的。你們光榮的獨立僅僅表明我們之間存有不可逾越的鴻溝。並非所有人都享受到了你們為之高歌歡唱的種種幸福。你們分享到了你們的先輩留下的正義、自由、繁榮和獨立的豐厚遺產，而我卻沒有。陽光帶給你們光明和撫慰，帶給我們的卻是鞭痕和死亡。7月4日屬於你們，而不屬於我，你們可歡欣雀躍，而我卻要傷心悲歎。將一個身著鐐銬的人拖過自由的雄偉光輝的聖殿，叫他和你們一起高唱歡樂的聖歌，不啻是慘無人道的嘲弄和褻瀆神明的諷刺。公民們，你們是否是為了嘲弄我才請我發言的？要是這樣，你們要因自己的行為自食其果的。我要警告你們，不要 覆蹈這樣一個國家的前轍：在那裏，萬能的主一聲歎息，這個國家所犯的滔天罪行就傾覆而下，使其永世夷為廢墟！今天，我要把一個皮肉活剝、飽受苦難的民族的悲歎之聲傳達給你們！

「在巴比倫河之濱，我們落坐。是啊！想起錫安山，我們哭泣著。我們把我們的豎琴懸掛在柳樹上，因為就在此地，將我們淪為俘虜的人要我們唱一支歌！蹂躪我們的人叫我們歡笑起來，他們說，唱一支錫安山的歌吧！但我們怎能在一塊陌生的土地上唱起主的讚美歌呢？噢，耶路撤冷，如果我竟忘掉了你就讓我的右手癱瘓吧！如果我忘掉了你，就讓我的舌頭粘在上齶頂吧！」

公民同胞們，在你們舉國喧囂的歡樂聲中，我聽到成百上千萬人的哀號！他們身上的鎖鏈，昨日已是沈重難忍了，而今日，你們的歡樂聲又使他們的苦痛愈發難熬。如果我真的忘記了，如果我不能切切牢記那些今日尚流淌著鮮血的孩子們，那麼，「就讓我的右手癱瘓吧，就讓我的舌頭粘在上齶頂吧！」如果忘了他們，如果對他們的屈辱置若罔聞，如果還在此與眾人一塊同聲鳴唱，就無異於最可恥、最聳人聽聞的背叛，就會使自己在上帝和世人面前受盡譴責。因此，公民同胞們，我發言的主題是美國的奴隸制。我要從奴隸的角度，來看今日此時，以及它對公眾的意義，我身同美國黑奴，他們的屈辱就是我的屈辱。我以自己的整個心靈，毫不猶豫地聲明：在我看來，今天這個7月4日裏，這個國家的黑暗德性和罪行，顯得從所未見地鮮明昭著！不論我們的回顧美國往日的聲明，還是傾聽其今日的諾言，它的所作所為都同樣顯駭人聽聞、令人作嘔。美國對過去是虛偽的，對現在是是虛偽的，對未來也恣意虛偽。此時此地，我站在上帝和遍體鱗傷、鮮血淋淋的黑奴一邊，以慘遭 凌辱的人性之名義，以身著桎梏的自由之名義，以受到拋棄和踐踏的《憲法》和《聖經》之名義，挺身而出，盡我具備的所有力量，對一切使奴隸制──深重的罪孽、美國的恥辱──永世永存的企圖發出我的抗議，發出我的譴責！「我不閃爍其辭，我不會客套！」：我要用的是我最激烈的言辭，而任何判斷力不受偏見所蒙蔽的人，任何內心裏不想繼續奴役黑人的人，都會承認我說的每句話都是正確的、公道的。

然而，我沒想到我的有些聽眾會說：「正是現在，你和你的廢奴主義兄弟們沒給公眾以良好印象。如果你們能多說理少責難，多勸戒訓斥，你們事業成功的希望就大得多了。」但是，我認為，當一切都顯而易見時，說什麼道理就是多餘的了。關於反奴隸制的綱領你們要我說明哪一點呢？這個問題在哪一個枝節上我們的國民還需要點撥呢？我還須著手證明奴隸也是人嗎？這點已屬公認，沒人有所懷疑。奴隸主們在實施他們政府的法律時都承認了這一點。當他們懲罰奴隸們的反抗時就承認了這一點。維吉尼亞州列出七十二項罪行，一黑人 (無論他多麼不知情) 犯了其中任何一項都要處以極刑，而其中只有兩項才能使一個白人受到同樣懲罰。這不正說明了奴隸是有道德、有理智、有責任的人嗎？奴隸具有人性，這也屬公認。事實證明了奴隸的人性：南方的法令條例都規定禁止教育奴隸讀書寫字，否則將受到高額罰款和嚴厲的處置。假如你們能指出有誰曾對田耕作的牛馬也規定過這樣的法律，那麼也許我會同意討論奴隸是否有人性。假如街上的小狗、空中的飛鳥、山上的牛羊、海裏的遊角、地上的爬蟲都分辨不出奴隸和野獸的區別，那麼我會和你們討論奴隸是不是人的！

此時此刻，只要肯定黑色人種同樣具備人性也就足夠了。我們耕耘、種植、收穫；我們使用各種器械工具，建房、修橋、造船；我們利用各種金屬，銅、鐵、金、銀； 我們讀書、寫字、計算；我們當職員、商人、秘書；我們中間有律師、醫生、牧師、詩人、作家、編輯、演說家和教師；我們從事其他人所從事的一切活動，在加利福尼亞開金採礦、在太平洋裏捕鯨捉魚、在山坡上放養牛羊，我們生活著、奔忙著、行動著、思考著、計劃著；在家中我們是丈夫、妻子、兒女。最重要的是，我們承認和崇奉基督教的上帝，期求來世的洪福永生。而在此情況下，還要我們證明我們是人，豈不今人驚訝萬分！

難道你們要我證明人有自由的權利，證明人是自身的正當主人?你們早巳聲明如此了。我還須證明奴隸制的邪惡嗎?這對共和主義者們還是個問題嗎?這個問題竟如此困難，需要推敲其道義原則的合適性，這樣深奧難解以至於要展開邏輯分析和辯論嗎?當著美國人的面，我要是在發言中對此問題條分縷析、又核對又實證、又否定又肯定地證明人生來享有自由，那麼我會給你們以什麼印象呢?這樣做我會顯得荒唐可笑，也是對你們的理解力的不尊不敬。在天穹底下無人不曉奴隸制對他是不公正的。

將人變為野獸、剝奪他們的自由、使他們勞無所獲、使他們對自己與他人的關係一無所知、對他們棍棒交加、用皮鞭抽打他們的肉體、將他們的四肢鎖上鐐銬、帶著狼犬 追捕他們、把他們拍賣於集市、讓他們妻離子散、敲碎他們的牙齒、燎烙他們的皮膚、用飢餓迫使他們聽話而屈從於主人──還用得著我來證明這一切都是不公正的嗎?我還須證明一個血腥 污臭的制度是邪惡的嗎?不！我不願。我的時間和精力要花在更值得於的事情上，而不是用來作此求證。

那麼，還剩下什麼需要論證呢?要證明奴隸制不是天意、上帝並沒有建立它嗎?要證明我們的神學博士們是錯的嗎?這樣想本身就是褻瀆。非人道的東西不會是天意!有誰能夠以此為題作出論證?那些能做到這一點的人也許會這樣做，但我不能。現在已不是作此論證的時候了。

今日此刻，需要的是灼熱的鋼鐵，而非今人信服的論證。啊！要是我有此能力，要是我能讓全國都聽到我的呼聲，今天我就會以滾滾巨流之勢發出我尖刻無情的嘲笑、粉碎一切的譴責，摧枯拉朽的諷刺，聲色俱厲的訓斥。因為我們需要的不是光亮。而是火焰；我們需要的不是和風細雨，而是電閃雷鳴。我們要風暴，要 颶風，要地震。國家的感情必須激勵，國家的良知必須喚醒，國家的溫良必須打破，國家的虛偽必須揭露。它對上帝和人類犯下的罪行必須公之於眾，加以迎頭痛擊。

你們的7月4日對美國黑奴有何意義?我的回答是：一年之中，沒有哪一天比今日更使他們感到讓自己無時不被淪為犧牲品的那種滔天的不公和殘忍了。對他們來說，你們的慶典是欺人之道；你們鼓吹的自由是放肆的褻瀆；你們的國家的偉大是虛榮的浮誇；你們的喜慶歡悅是空虛和無情的；你們對暴君的譴責是不要臉的厚顏無恥；你們自由平等的歡呼聲是空洞的冒牌貨；你們的祈禱和讚美詩，你們的佈道和感恩，加上所有的宗教遊行和儀式，不過是面對上帝的裝腔作態、虛假欺騙、不虔的褻瀆和虛偽的做作──不過是在野蠻人都會感到羞恥的罪行上覆蓋的一層薄薄的紗巾。此時此刻，世界上還沒有任何一個野蠻民族，沒有任何一個其他民族，像美國人那樣犯下了如此駭人聽聞、鮮血淋淋的罪惡勾當。

不論你們走到哪裡，不論你們在哪裡尋覓，遊遍舊大陸的所有君主國和專制國家，踏遍整個南美洲，收集所有殘忍的記錄直至窮盡；然後把你們的調查結果與美國每天發生的事作個比較，你們就會與我一樣得出結論：在令人髮指的野蠻和厚顏無恥的偽善方面，美國的確是舉世無雙了。

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.