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Quote#Freedom

This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must…

Quote byFrederick Douglass · 1818–1895

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (1852).

English (original)

This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.

— Frederick Douglass

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