Question

\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.\

identify and write the claim douglass makes.

Explanation:

⚡ Using what you learned: inferential comprehension and textual evidence

Step 1: Analyze the text

The passage is an excerpt from Frederick Douglass's famous speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?".

Douglass asks what the Fourth of July means to an enslaved person and answers that it is:

• A day that reveals the "gross injustice and cruelty" they constantly face.
• A "sham" celebration.
• A "hollow mockery" of liberty and equality.

Step 2: Identify the central claim

The central claim is the main argument the author is making. Douglass argues that celebrating American independence and freedom is hypocritical and painful to enslaved people, because they are entirely excluded from those liberties and continue to suffer extreme injustice.

Answer:

Frederick Douglass's claim is that the Fourth of July is a hypocritical celebration because the freedom and liberty it commemorates are denied to enslaved Americans, making the holiday a painful reminder of the constant injustice and cruelty they face.