By Jaden Atkins
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Loyola University of Maryland concluded its annual Humanities Symposium March 12 with a keynote address from Pulitzer Prize winning author David Blight in which he spoke on the current state of America alongside the teachings of Frederick Douglass.
Blight framed much of his address around the idea of reflection and how America’s past effects the country’s future outlook.
Blight urged audience members to ponder what Douglass meant when he said, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.” The quote came from a keynote address Douglass delivered on July 5, 1852, in which he said the country’s birthday celebration did not extend to enslaved African Americans.
Blight spoke at length about the initial intentions and origins of the Declaration of Independence, saying that all the accusations levied against King George III in the original document may not have been truthful.
“The Declaration of Independence, in case you didn’t know, is a great work of propaganda,” Blight said.
Blight acknowledged the negative public opinion that the Declaration initially received upon its dispersal, especially among those in Europe.
Among those initial public criticisms, he highlighted how absurd it was that the authors would accuse King George III of starting slave insurrections while themselves being slaveholders.
In addition to his musings on the Declaration of Independence, Blight said that the 1850s was a time similar to today’s political and social unrest throughout the country.
As the Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University, Blight is knowledgeable on the Civil War and Reconstruction era America. He specializes in the teachings of Frederick Douglass, who was the topic of his Pulitzer Prize winning biography in 2018.
With this year being the 250th anniversary of the Declaration, Blight bought attention to similar milestones in the country’s history such as the centennial and the bicentennial.
He reminisced about his own involvement in the bicentennial and the ease with which he was able to receive government funding for his own project.
According to him, the bicentennial movement was orchestrated by the government across two different presidential administrations with the goal of helping citizens “get over” the events of the 1960’s.
The Humanities Symposium has been held annually at Loyola for over 20 years, with the goal of getting “a large portion of the Loyola community to read the same work at roughly the same time.”
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the theme of this year’s Humanities Symposium was “Life, Liberty, and the Unfinished Work of Democracy.”
Participants in this year’s symposium evaluated that theme through the lens of Frederick Douglass’ address “What to the Slave is The Fourth of July.”
Blight returned to Douglass’ address towards the end of the speech, adding some visual context for the address, which was delivered at Rochester Ladies Club in Corinthian Hall.
His commentary on Douglass’ work focused primarily on the structure of the speech.
“This masterpiece of rhetoric is like a symphony in three movements,” Blight said.
He described how Douglass sets the audience at ease in the “first movement” with softer language and a more hopeful outlook for the country before his second movement “infests the audience’s senses” with the horrors of the American slave trade.
Douglass’ speech featured several Bible verses, and Blight recited ones from Isaiah, Psalm, Exodus and Jeremiah in detail.
Blight portrayed the third movement of the speech as calmer in comparison to the second movement. He said Douglass ended his address with hope that the future may be better for Black Americans.
“What he’s done in this speech is he’s transcended the room,” Blight said. “He has spoken beyond Rochester. He’s created a work of art.”