"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? 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? "


In this quote Frederick Douglass is pretty much questioning why he was brought there to speak to commemorate the independence of a country that has not yet brought independence to himself and the people of color he represents . Whether that independence from Great Britain was anything of value to people of color . In the Declaration of Independence it stated that all men are created equal but that sentiment was clearly not seen in the essence of this new founded nation of America because men born like any other were not seen as man but as property and in turn had no independence or freedom  in this rising nation all though they were pretty much building it whether it been with them actually creating things or laboring in a field to produce and pick "cash crops".

I have also thought this  when it comes to July 4th for many years I've celebrated July 4th as well as many other African Americans when truly that independence had nothing to do with me because I would have still been a slave, but emancipation day is not even celebrated with as much  enthusiasm as the 4th of July when it should be more popular among African Americans.