What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

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Frederick Douglass, a freed slave, is asked to give a speech to a group of Americans on the 4th of July. Douglass uses the occasion to eloquently and forcefully address the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating freedom, while enslaving so many. With equal force, he strips bare the arguments for slavery, concluding with a call for radical action to end slavery in America. (Holt Elements of Literature, 2008)

This lesson was created as part of the Anthology Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in anthologies. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the anthology named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.

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