What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

Throughout his oration, Douglass uses the imagery of a storm, complete with dark clouds, thunder, and lightning, to bolster his arguments. The first use of this imagery is in the opening section of the speech, in which Douglass refers to the “ship of state” (4) that White Americans are in. This ship sails through “dark and threatening clouds” (4), and Douglass implores these citizens to cling to the idea of independence as a sailor going through a storm. The use of this, symbolically, is twofold: First, many Americans at the time would have experience or contextual knowledge about sailing, so this is a useful reference for a more general audience; second, the use of weather as a symbol for conflict allows Douglass to maintain a less condescending or angry tone. A storm is a natural event that passes through, not an explicit negative interaction or structure.

Later, this second purpose of the storm imagery appears more clearly as Douglass argues that what is needed to move forward as a country is “the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake” (9). In this instance, as before, the use of significant weather events is used in place of more explicit naming of the issue at hand: the abolition of slavery. In this way, Douglass builds the intensity of his argument without losing his audience. Throughout the speech, descriptions of storms, clouds, and thunder precede Douglass’s central points. He uses these images to help his potentially resistant audience to see his perspective.