新SAT必读演讲：7月4日对美国黑奴的意义

　　Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery — the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

　　公民同胞们，在你们举国喧嚣的欢乐声中，我听到成百上千万人的哀号!他们身上的锁链，昨日已是沉重难忍了，而今日，你们的欢乐声又使他们的苦痛愈发难熬。如果我真的忘记了，如果我不能切切牢记那些今日尚流淌着鲜血的孩子们，那麽，“就让我的右手瘫痪吧，就让我的舌头粘在上腭顶吧!”如果忘了他们，如果对他们的屈辱置若罔闻，如果还在此与众人一块同声鸣唱，就无异于最可耻、最耸人听闻的背叛，就会使自己在上帝和世人面前受尽谴责。因此，公民同胞们，我发言的主题是美国的奴隶制。我要从奴隶的角度，来看今日此时，以及它对公众的意义，我身同美国黑奴，他们的屈辱就是我的屈辱。我以自己的整个心灵，毫不犹豫地声明：在我看来，今天这个7月4日里，这个国家的黑暗德性和罪行，显得从所未见地鲜明昭著!不论我们的回顾美国往日的声明，还是倾听其今日的诺言，它的所作所为都同样显骇人听闻、令人作呕。美国对过去是虚伪的，对现在是是虚伪的，对未来也恣意虚伪。此时此地，我站在上帝和遍体鳞伤、鲜血淋淋的黑奴一边，以惨遭凌辱的人性之名义，以身着桎梏的自由之名义，以受到抛弃和践踏的《宪法》和《圣经》之名义，挺身而出，尽我具备的所有力量，对一切使奴隶制——深重的罪孽、美国的耻辱——永世永存的企图发出我的抗议，发出我的谴责!“我不闪烁其辞，我不会客套!”：我要用的是我最激烈的言辞，而任何判断力不受偏见所蒙蔽的人，任何内心里不想继续奴役黑人的人，都会承认我说的每句话都是正确的、公道的。

　　But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

　　然而，我没想到我的有些听众会说：“正是现在，你和你的废奴主义兄弟们没给公众以良好印象。如果你们能多说理少责难，多劝戒训斥，你们事业成功的希望就大得多了。”但是，我认为，当一切都显而易见时，说什麽道理就是多余的了。关于反奴隶制的纲领你们要我说明哪一点呢?这个问题在哪一个枝节上我们的国民还需要点拨呢?我还须着手证明奴隶也是人吗?这点已属公认，没人有所怀疑。奴隶主们在实施他们政府的法律时都承认了这一点。当他们惩罚奴隶们的反抗时就承认了这一点。维吉尼亚州列出七十二项罪行，一黑人 (无论他多麽不知情) 犯了其中任何一项都要处以极刑，而其中只有两项才能使一个白人受到同样惩罚。这不正说明了奴隶是有道德、有理智、有责任的人吗?奴隶具有人性，这也属公认。事实证明了奴隶的人性：南方的法令条例都规定禁止教育奴隶读书写字，否则将受到高额罚款和严厉的处置。假如你们能指出有谁曾对田耕作的牛马也规定过这样的法律，那麽也许我会同意讨论奴隶是否有人性。假如街上的小狗、空中的飞鸟、山上的牛羊、海里的游角、地上的爬虫都分辨不出奴隶和野兽的区别，那麽我会和你们讨论奴隶是不是人的!

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