Independence Day special: Live readings of speeches about freedom

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Jun. 29—Abolitionist Frederick Douglass made a speech about Independence Day that was louder than any fireworks.

Delivered in 1852 and known by a question that Douglass posed halfway through, "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?," the speech addressed themes of equality and hypocrisy with a fierce directness that is still audible today.

To make sure that everyone in the Commonwealth gets to hear those words for themselves, Mass Humanities is hosting a virtual reading of Douglass' speech on June 29 at 6:30 p.m. The readers include Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard, former Red Sox player and NESN analyst Sam Horn and Congressman Jim McGover. Anyone can register to watch the free, filmed event at https://bit.ly/39XFRZy.

But Mass Humanities is also funding local events in towns across the state, including in Beverly on Saturday, July 2, Newburyport on Sunday, July 3 and North Andover on Monday, July 4, in which community members will conduct their own readings of the speech. This is the third year that these "Reading Frederick Douglass Together" events have been held.

"We hosted this event for the first time last summer," said Abby Battis, associate director of Historic Beverly. "It was pouring rain, yet over 100 people turned out for the event."

The text of the speech was divided into 40 parts, and volunteer readers lined up in the order of their selection before reading from Douglass' oration. This year Historic Beverly is using some of its funding to invite poet and historian Nathan Richardson, who often portrays Douglass at live events, to kick off the morning.

"In 'What, to the American slave, is the Fourth of July?,' Douglass tried to tell of why slavery is wrong and why abolitionism should be embraced, especially in the north," Battis said. "It tells a story of freedom unlike what we are normally taught in school."

Indeed, on the day in which Americans enjoy celebrating their political freedom from Great Britain, Douglass pointed out in graphic terms that Black people in America had been forced into chattel slavery.

"What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?" he asked rhetorically.

Douglass actually delivered the speech on July 5 in Rochester, New York, where he was living, and where he had been asked to discuss the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

"Douglass compares patriots of 1776 with abolitionists of 1852, which is poignant for presenting the piece during the Fourth of July weekend, when the nation is already reflecting on the history of freedom that we gained in 1776," Battis said.

The North Andover event is following a different format, beginning with a reading of the Declaration of Independence, then following with five other major speeches, all but one of which allude to that founding document and its assertion that "all men are created equal."

"The Declaration of Independence proved very useful to one cause after another — that of workers, or women, or farmers, who felt that their equality or rights were being violated," wrote Pauline Maier, a historian at MIT. "The cause that claimed its authority most powerfully, however, was that of abolitionism."

Along with Douglass' speech, visitors to North Andover's Town Common will hear President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address from 1863, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963, and President Lyndon Johnsons' 1965 address on Voting Rights and the American Promise.

"On Woman's Right to Suffrage," a speech delivered by Susan B. Anthony in 1873, doesn't make any overt allusions to the Declaration of Independence, although it was certainly concerned with equal rights for women.

However, in 1876, on the 100th anniversary of American independence, Anthony interrupted a reading of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia to read her own "Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States," to emphasize the point that women in America didn't enjoy the same liberties as men.

North Andover's event will feature a presentation by Ralph Bledsoe, a physics teacher at Andover High School, of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. He first delivered the oration in a faculty-student talent show at Northfield Mount Hermon School in 1998, and has enjoyed many requests to perform it since that time.

"I'm trying to impersonate him, but it turns into an interpretation, because I put my angle on it," Bledsoe said. "I'm definitely using his rhythms and his cadence throughout the speech, but his voice is a little higher. I go much deeper."

Bledsoe said that King's speech provides a vivid demonstration of a term from physics, resonance, because it convinces listeners of the truth of what it describes.

"It resonates, and that's the strength of it," Bledsoe said.

The event in Newburyport will focus solely on "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July," and will be introduced by Kat Everett from Haverhill, who teaches in the Social Justice program at Merrimack College.

In her work as a consultant, Everett specializes in leading uncomfortable dialogues between "demographics that don't usually go together," which she helps to organize at COCO Brown, a cultural community center in Haverhill. This has included a listening forum on "the public execution of George Floyd" that involved police, politicians and community members.

"The most important part about that wasn't the elected officials there, but that the community came out to speak their truths," Everett said. "That was the part that was really important. It was the people speaking truth to power."

For the event in Newburyport, Everett said her role will be minimal, and Douglass' words will speak for themselves.

"I feel like all of the recent events in general make it very poignant, the fact that this is happening now," Everett said. "It's a very evocative speech, in and of itself, and as a fan of books and poetry I think it's painful and lovely in the way that it is written."

Everett also said that helping people to find their own voices is a critical part of her role as an instructor, and the group format of Reading Frederick Douglas Together has a similar aim.

"The power of collective voices is something I'm very passionate about," Everett said.

If you go

What: Reading Frederick Douglass Together

Virtual reading: June 29, 6:30 p.m., register at https://bit.ly/39XFRZy

Beverly: Saturday, July 2, 10 to 11 a.m., Hale Farm, 39 Hale St. To inquire about being a reader, call 978-922-1186 x206.

Newburyport: Sunday, July 3, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Garrison Statue—Brown Square, 11 Brown Square. www.newburyhistory.org.

North Andover: Monday, July 4, 12 p.m., Town Common. www.1836meetinghouse.org.

All events are free