Over the next two weeks, a handful of communities in the Pioneer Valley will participate in public readings of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 address, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
The speech was first heard on July 5, 1852, when the abolitionist and orator gave the keynote address at an Independence Day celebration at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York.
The readings fall under the Frederick Douglass Together program, now in its 15th year under the direction of Northampton-based Mass Humanities. Each community program will be slightly different, often incorporating music, art, poetry, and other forms of creative expression.
The programs include:
Northampton: Saturday, June 29, at 11 a.m. on the grounds of Historic Northampton, 46 Bridge St.
Hadley: Wednesday, July 3, at 6:30 p.m., at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive.
Plainfield: Thursday, July 4, at 10 a.m., Plainfield Reads will host a reading at a place to be determined.
Amherst: Friday, July 5, from 3 to 5 p.m., South Congregational Church, 1066 South East St. Participants from the area will take turns reading paragraphs of the speech. In addition to the reading, the event will include a performance by the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, and a speech by Amilcar Shabazz, UMass professor of Afro-American studies. The afternoon will include small group discussions, refreshments and free distribution of books by Douglass and other important African American writers.
Joining a tradition that evolved in African American communities for generations, Mass Humanities began providing funding public shared readings of the orator’s influential address in 2009. Since that time, the popularity of the Reading Frederick Douglass Together program has increased exponentially. In the past seven years, the number of readings has increased by 400%, from 12 in 2017 to more than 60 this year.
“The annual reading of Douglass’ words has grown into a statewide movement to reckon with our past and to build new connections among community members,” said Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities. “We applaud the Massachusetts residents who choose to mark the Juneteenth and Independence Day holidays by standing together and recommitting to the promises of our democracy.”
After escaping slavery in 1838, Douglass found freedom in New Bedford and went on to start his career and his family in Massachusetts. Recent research by Anne Mattina, professor of communication at Stonehill College, traced his appearances in more than 105 towns in the commonwealth between 1841 and 1861. The most celebrated orator of his day, Douglass’ denunciations of slavery and forceful examination of the Constitution challenge audiences to think about the origins of American democracy, the legacy of enslavement, and the gaps between actions and aspirations.
