"What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" by Frederick Douglass: List 1

In this powerful speech delivered on July 5, 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass argued that the practice of slavery was antithetical to the American values of liberty and freedom.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. avail
    be of use to, be useful to
    The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
  2. evince
    give expression to
    You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium.
  3. deliverance
    recovery or preservation from loss or danger
    It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day.
  4. portend
    indicate by signs
    The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence.
  5. inundate
    fill or cover completely, usually with water
    They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties.
  6. prerogative
    a right reserved exclusively by a person or group
    This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper.
  7. flippant
    showing an inappropriate lack of seriousness
    Everybody can say it; the dastard, not less than the noble brave, can flippantly discant on the tyranny of England towards the American Colonies.
  8. redress
    act of correcting an error or a fault or an evil
    Feeling themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your fathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress.
  9. remonstrate
    argue in protest or opposition
    They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner.
  10. decorous
    characterized by propriety and dignity and good taste
    They petitioned and remonstrated; they did so in a decorous, respectful, and loyal manner.
  11. unexceptionable
    completely acceptable; not open to reproach
    Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable.
  12. restive
    impatient especially under restriction or delay
    Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment.
  13. appellation
    identifying words by which someone or something is called
    These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians.
  14. euphonious
    having a pleasant sound
    These people were called Tories in the days of your fathers; and the appellation, probably, conveyed the same idea that is meant by a more modern, though a somewhat less euphonious term, which we often find in our papers, applied to some of our old politicians.
Created on Mon Jun 02 18:37:39 EDT 2025

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