Stage your own fireworks this summer: Enlist your community group, your library, your town, your church, your family and friends to organize a communal reading of:
The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro
"Fellow citizens, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?"
In his fiery July 5, 1852 speech, the great orator famously took exception to being asked to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What brought him to this moment? What did he try to achieve? Was he un-patriotic or ultra-American? Did he actually dissociate himself from American citizenship or embrace it with this speech? It behooves us to read the speech and learn.
Douglass's Fourth of July address is abolition's rhetorical masterpiece. -- David Blight
HISTORY: In his fiery July 5, 1852 speech, the great orator famously took exception to being asked to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What brought him to this moment? What did he try to achieve? Was he un-patriotic or ultra-American? Did he actually dissociate himself from American citizenship or embrace it with this speech? It behooves us to read the speech and learn.
TAKE THE LEAD: In collaboration with co-sponsors listed below, we encourage community groups, libraries, towns, organizations, families, and individuals to organize a shared reading of the speech, perhaps followed by discussion in the weeks leading up to or on this summer.
Mass Humanities will contribute towards ten events: the first ten groups to submit a brief report, half a dozen photographs, a recording or video documenting your event, with a release for us to post them online, will be awarded $150 plus a copy of the American Experience DVD John Brown’s Holy War -- an outstanding documentary funded by Mass Humanities.
1838
Frederick Bailey escapes from slavery and settles in New Bedford, MA
1845
A radicalized Frederick Douglass publishes his Narrative, announcing to the world he is an escaped slave. He then leaves New England to avoid capture by slave catchers while he travels and lectures in England, supporters buy his freedom.
1850
Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act -- it is now a federal offense to harbor a person who is "legally" a slave.
1852
In his Independence Day speech, Douglass, who clearly feels like an American (why else return?), goes so far as to refer to your United States and your Founding Fathers.
