9.
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Citizenship
| - | The American Negro's Fourth of July, address, New Haven African Church, 5 July 1832 (PDF) |
| - | State Negro conventions on black citizenship, 1838-1849 (PDF) |
| - | Colored National Convention on black citizenship, 1853 (PDF) |
| - | Declaration of Wrongs and Rights, Natl. Colored Convention, 1864 (PDF) |
| - | Letter from London on black citizenship, 1849 (PDF) |
| - | Appeals for equal rights, narrative selections, 19th c. (PDF) |
James Henry Gooding's letter to Abraham Lincoln questioning unequal pay for black and white soldiers (see #6: Soldiers), could have included this challenge:
Are we good enough to use bullets, and not good enough to use ballots? May we defend rights in time of war, and yet be denied the exercise of those rights in time of peace? Are we citizens when the nation is in peril, and aliens when the nation is in safety? May we shed our blood under the star-spangled banner on the battle-field, and yet be debarred from marching under it to the ballot-box.
This indictment of America's treatment of black Americans arose from the 1864 National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, New York, in its Address to the People of the United States (see Supplemental Sites). Presented here is the convention's brief powerful Declaration of Wrongs and Rights. Statements "to the American people" and "to the American slaves" were also issued by state Negro conventions throughout the northern states (see "Letter to the American Slaves" issued by an 1850 African American convention in Theme III: COMMUNITY, #7, Fugitives). What do these statements have in common?
Frederick Douglass's 1852 address "What, to the Americans Slave, is the Fourth of July?" is well known and justifiably so (see Supplemental Sites). The irony of African Americans celebrating Independence Day, whether free or enslaved, was a topic of similar addresses in the mid 1800s, so here we can compare Douglass's address with one delivered thirty years earlier in Connecticut by Peter Osborne on July Fifth, a day often set aside by African Americans for the observance, not celebration, of their yet-to-come equality. (xx pages.)
Discussion questions
- How do African Americans appeal for citizenship in these addresses and statements? What rights do they request, or demand? Compare their goals with those of the civil rights movements of the twentieth century (see Vol. III of The Making of African American Identity).
- Compare the two "Fourth of July" addresses by Peter Osborne (1832) and Frederick Douglass (1852). What has changed in the twenty years between the two speeches?
- How did the "Negro convention movement" solidify and direct the African Americans quest for respect as fellow citizens of white Americans?
- Compare the local, state, and national campaigns for citizenship and civil rights. How did they differ in goals, audience, and mode of appeal?
- What perspective does William Wells Brown give to black's pursuit of citizenship in his 1849 letter from London?
- How did the rhetoric of these statements and appeals change after the Civil War had begun? Why?
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Framing Questions
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How did African Americans construct identity in antebellum America? |
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How did enslaved and free blacks differ in their exercise of power and self-determination?
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How did African Americans define themselves as members of groups?
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Printing
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Supplemental Sites
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| *PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site. |
Images: Declaration of Wrongs and Rights, page one (detail), in Proceedings of the National convention of colored men, held in the city of Syracuse, N.Y., October 4, 5, 6, and 7, 1864; digital image in From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909, courtesy of the Library of Congress, African American Pamphlet Collection.
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