Frederick Douglass 'What to the slave is your Fourth of July?' speech read across Seacoast

Special to Seacoastonline
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JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, explains the importance of Frederick Douglass' 1852 “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech during an event at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth Friday, July 1, 2022.
JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, explains the importance of Frederick Douglass' 1852 “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech during an event at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth Friday, July 1, 2022.

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire held readings of the Frederick Douglass speech, “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” at locations across the state just as the holiday weekend was beginning.

From Exeter to Peterborough, 12 communities held ceremonies simultaneously at 1 p.m. on Friday, July 1. Community members took turns reading the historic protest speech in each location in commemoration of July 5, 1852, when Douglass, an abolitionist and heroic orator for liberty, delivered the speech at an Independence Day observance in Rochester, New York.

Actor and Portsmouth resident Kevin Wade Mitchell is the first person to do a reading from Fredercik Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth on Friday, July 1, 2022.
Actor and Portsmouth resident Kevin Wade Mitchell is the first person to do a reading from Fredercik Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth on Friday, July 1, 2022.

His speech was "a blistering indictment of an American idealism that ignored and accepted the inhuman treatment of enslaved African Americans as part of the country’s identity and economy," as described by organizers.

Barbara Ward reads from Frederick Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth Friday, July 1, 2022.
Barbara Ward reads from Frederick Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” speech at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth Friday, July 1, 2022.

Readings on the Seacoast this year included ones in Rollinsford at the Colonel Paul Wentworth House on Water Street; in Dover at the Dover Public Library; in Exeter at Exeter Town Hall; in Portsmouth at Strawbery Banke Musueum's Goodwin Garden and in Rochester at the Rochester Performance and Arts Center.

More: Here's a list of July 4 fireworks, events in Seacoast NH and southern Maine for 2022

Rich Blalock reads from Frederick Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” at the Portsmouth commemoration of his 1852 speech at Strawbery Banke Museum Friday, July 1, 2022.
Rich Blalock reads from Frederick Douglass' “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” at the Portsmouth commemoration of his 1852 speech at Strawbery Banke Museum Friday, July 1, 2022.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Frederick Douglass' historic speech read across Seacoast NH