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Primary sourceSpeech6 January 1941

Four Freedoms Speech

Franklin Delano Roosevelt · 6 January 1941

FDR's January 1941 State of the Union address naming freedom of speech, worship, from want, and from fear as goals for all people, before the U.S. entered World War II.

FDR delivered this address, articulating the war aims and values that would guide his wartime leadership.

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Typed page headed 'TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES' with several paragraphs of double-spaced text, from President Roosevelt's 1941 annual message to Congress, on aged off-white paper.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress (Four Freedoms Speech), January 6, 1941. U.S. National Archives.

About this source

What it is

This is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's annual message to Congress delivered January 6, 1941, now held by the U.S. National Archives as a typed page from the official record. In it he set out four freedoms he believed everyone in the world deserved: speech, worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Why it matters

Delivered nearly a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the speech argued for American support of Britain and other democracies fighting Nazi Germany, breaking with the country's tradition of staying out of foreign wars. The four freedoms became a rallying idea for the American war effort, were later illustrated in paintings by Norman Rockwell, and influenced the later Charter of the United Nations.

Look closer

  • Why might Roosevelt have chosen these four freedoms instead of others?
  • How does the typed, edited page differ from how most people experienced this speech at the time?
  • What does the speech suggest about the role the United States should play beyond its own borders?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Franklin D. Roosevelt on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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