What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850? How is it different from other so-called “slave codes”? How is it similar?

Teaching Suggestion: Because Douglass’s address argues against this law specifically and against slavery in general, students can quickly and easily grasp the historical, social, and political context of 1852 by exploring this law and the forces that reacted in favor of and against it.

• “Fugitive Slave Acts” at History.com explains the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the laws that preceded it.
• “Compromise of 1850 Explained (Fugitive Slave Act)” via the Mr. Droste History YouTube channel is a 9-minute video that provides political and philosophical context for the act and thus Douglass’s speech.
• “Laws That Bound,” part of the National Park Service’s African American Heritage and Ethnography self-study program, provides a detailed history of the laws that restricted the lives of Black people from the nation’s founding.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who need support organizing ideas for comprehension, writing, and reflection, it might be helpful to use a graphic organizer, such as a 3-column chart or a Venn diagram, to frame a discussion based on comparison.