Oration by Frederick Douglass Delivered on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument, April 14, 1876

Accompanied by President Ulysses S. Grant and other officials of the federal government, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech at the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1876. Designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball, the monument depicts Abraham Lincoln holding the emancipation proclamation and holding out his right hand over a kneeling ex-slave. The statue was funded mostly by formerly enslaved persons and is also known as the Freedmen’s Monument. Help us transcribe Douglass’s speech, which newspaper accounts of the time described as “an eloquent oration.”