The 4th of July

​Prior to the Civil War, July 4 was a time of protest for Black communities. There are two important books that have coalesced the words of our ancestors for posterity. Historian Dorothy Porter first led the compilation effort with her volume Early Negro Writing published in 1971.

Continuing the documenting energy, Lift Every Voice edited by Phil Foner and Robert James Branham was published in 1998.

From both of these books we find a plethora of July 4 protest speeches.  Here are some of them: 

Documented July 4 Speeches

1827  Austin Steward  -  Termination of Slavery 

1830  Peter Williams Jr. - Slavery and Colonization 

1832  Peter Osborne - It’s Time for Us to Be up and Doing

1834  Joseph Corr - Speech to The Humane Mechanics Association

1852  Frederick Douglass - What to the Slave is the 4th of July

1859  William H Johnson - The 83rd Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (newly digitized by the 1838 Black Metropolis) 

1860  H. Ford Douglass - I Do Not Believe in the Antislavery of Abraham Lincoln

1877  Peter Clark - Socialism: The Remedy for The Evils of Society

These speeches were almost always

“a searing mix ​

of praise and blame,

of celebration and sadness,

of jubilation and anger.”

(Foner and Barnham page 105)

Members of The Banneker Institute

The Banneker Institute

Founded in 1854, Emma Lapsansky-Werner describes how 19 year old Philadelphian Jacob C. White Jr., the son of Underground Railroad and community leader Jacob C. White, Sr., took action to create a public library in his community.  A few years later, this became an institute founded and run primarily by young men to ‘discipline the mind’.  This meant following a strict code of ethics and conduct that centered on intellectual growth.

Jacob C. White, Jr., Image Public Domain

During their 20 years of existence, Banneker Institute members led over 200 public programs on everything from poetry, to anatomy, to electricity to zoology and more.  They used their circle for deep dives into the issues of the day through lecture, writing and debate.  Their membership extended internationally. 

Lapsansky, Emma Jones. 1993. "Discipline to the Mind": Philadelphia's Banneker Institute, 1854-1872. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 117. Philadelphia: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.Page 84

Banneker Institute Activism

Banneker Institute members were men of action who held a variety of political beliefs.  But what they agreed on was that equality and freedom were a necessity.  This led some of them to become leaders in more activist organizations. 

The most famous member is Octavius Catto, who joined when he was a teenager and was a member until the end of his life, when he was assassinated.  Catto and his finance Carolyn LeCount are noted for their early implementation of civil disobedience as an activist action to draw attention to trolley car discrimination. 

Some scholars have faulted The Banneker Institute for being moderate and elitist.  It’s important to note however that more records are surfacing that may tell a more nuanced story. 

For example, when one of their own, Moses Horner,  was accused of being a “fugitive” in 1860, Institute members organized a protest outside of Independence Hall.  Banneker Institute members decided that they would rescue Horner if he lost the case. Horner did lose and that led to a chaotic scene outside of Independence Hall where Institute members fought with police to rescue him. 

Report of the rescue attempt from The Daily Exchange, Baltimore Maryland, March 30, 1860, Courtesy Newspapers.com

Ultimately they were unable to save him, and 27 year old Institute member Alfred Green was imprisoned at Eastern State Penitentiary for his efforts to rescue his Banneker brother.

Biddle, Daniel R., and Murray Dubin. 2010. Tasting Freedom : Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Page 243. See https://archive.org/details/tastingfreedomoc0000bidd/page/n5/mode/2up

We are excited to bring you this July 4, 1859 Banneker Institute Speech by William H Johnson.  

Courtesy the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

This speech was given at Franklin Hall which was within eyesight of Independence Hall and a block away from where Pennsylvania Hall had burned down 20 years before that. A historically significant spot indeed to hold a July 4 protest speech.

We discovered the speech in the archives of The Library Company of Philadelphia. We believe we are the first to digitize this speech.

Just as Foner and Barnham described, the speech cycles through “praise and blame”.  Johnson describes his deep respect for the Declaration of Independence but his deep anger and disappointment that the ideals of the Declaration were (are) not extended to Black people.

He writes: