Reading Frederick Douglass Together 2026A Public Reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 Fourth of July Address
Event Details
With a welcome by Representative Lindsay Sabadosa and opening remarks from Dr. Sarah Stefana Smith of Mount Holyoke College.
Reading Frederick Douglass Together brings people together to read aloud Frederick Douglass’s speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Come to Listen or Come to Read
Come to listen or come to read a passage. Copies of Douglass’s speech will be distributed to all in attendance. The public can take turns reading passages from it in succession.
Free and Open to the Public
200 chairs will be available. Feel free to bring your own chair. During the reading, the grounds are closed to dog walking. Certified service dogs only, please.
State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa
The Northampton event is organized in collaboration with State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in 1838 and lived for many years in Massachusetts. He delivered the Fourth of July speech on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The most celebrated orator of his day, Douglass’s powerful language, resolute denunciations of slavery, and forceful examination of the Constitution challenge us to think about the histories we tell, the values they teach, and if our actions match our aspirations. To quote Douglass, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the future.”
The themes addressed in the speech still resonate with Americans more than 150 years after they were written. Now more than ever, the speech forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy.
Frederick Douglass had strong ties to the abolitionist community, the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (1842-1846), and the African-American community in Florence, which included David Ruggles, who assisted Douglass when he arrived in New York City via the “underground railroad.” Douglass spoke in Northampton and Florence about slavery and the abolitionist movement.
This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
The Northampton event is funded by Mass Humanities and co-sponsored by State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa in partnership with:
- ACLU Massachusetts
- Academy of Music Theatre
- All Out Adventures
- A.P.E. Ltd. (Available Potential Enterprises)
- Beit Ahavah Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton
- Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity
- Center for New Americans
- City of Northampton
- College Church
- Congregation B’nai Israel
- David Ruggles Center
- Daily Hampshire Gazette
- Downtown Northampton Association
- Edwards Church
- First Churches of Northampton
- Florence Congregational Church
- Forbes Library
- Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
- Greenfield Savings Bank
- Grow Food Northampton
- Hampshire County Food Policy Council
- Healthy Hampshire
- International Language Institute
- League of Women Voters (Northampton Area)
- Markham Nathan Fund
- Northampton’s Commission to Investigate Racialized Harms
- Northampton Center for the Arts
- Northampton Community Arts Trust
- Northampton Neighbors
- Northampton Open Media
- St. John’s Episcopal Church
- Smith College
- Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership
- Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee
- The Venture Out Project
- TransHealth
- Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence
- Ward 3 Neighborhood Association