By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists
Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.
When the Rochester, New York Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society invited Frederick Douglass to deliver an Independence Day address in 1852, he spent several weeks preparing his remarks. Drawing on American history, the imperative of slavery’s abolition, and biblical narratives, Douglass took on the persona of a Hebrew prophet in an oratorical display that his biographer, David Blight, calls “the rhetorical masterpiece of American abolitionism.”
On July 5, 1852, Douglass asked, “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” Having escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838 and joined the ranks of abolitionist circuit-riding lecturers in 1841, Douglass by 1852 was one of America’s leading voices for ending slavery. The power of Douglass’s words is so resonant that even now the 1852 speech gets recited in public settings, which is what will happen in 16 New Hampshire locations at noon on Saturday, June 28.
According to the Black Heritage Trail of NH, which has coordinated public readings of the speech for several years, the annual recitation of “What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July?” marks a “significant moment for reflection and dialogue on the legacy of slavery and the ongoing struggle for equality.”
“We believe in the power of Frederick Douglass’ words to spark meaningful dialogue and inspire positive change,” said JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director at BHTNH. “By coming together to read and discuss his speech, we will create a space for reflection and action towards building more inclusive and just communities.”
Explaining why the Elkins Public Library in Canterbury is co-sponsoring a reading at Canterbury Shaker Village, the library’s director, Rachel Baker said, “A library should always allow for the opportunity for a person to experience someone else’s life and perspective, in a book, in a program, in a presentation. That’s the only way we can learn.” The reading of the 1852 speech “allows for a profound experience in the community, to hear the words of Frederick Douglass, to understand the words, to understand the time in which he spoke,” she said.
“The Frederick Douglass reading is important to Canterbury Shaker Village because the Canterbury Shakers believed in the equality of all people,” added Kyle Sandler, the Village’s Director of Interpretation and Education. “Regardless of ethnicity or national origin, the Shakers accepted new members with open arms and provided them an equal footing in the Society.”
For groups that want to host a reading, the Black Heritage Trail provides a guide, including a copy of an abridged version of Douglass’ lengthy speech and a suggestion that they recruit 10 to 40 volunteer readers. They suggest dividing up the speech into sections and giving volunteers a chance to review their parts before the event.
Groups in other states, including Massachusetts and Kansas, organize readings of the 1852 speech, as well.
Douglass was no stranger to New Hampshire. In his autobiography, he describes an 1842 trip to Pittsfield, where he received a chilly reception. He also spoke on the State House grounds in 1892 at the dedication of a statue of John P. Hale, an abolitionist who was among the founders of the Republican Party. By my count, he made at least 19 trips to New Hampshire from 1841 to 1892, sometimes traveling for days from town to town to give anti-slavery lectures.
The 2025 readings come at a time when history, especially the history of enslavement and liberation, is contested territory. And as Douglass would later say, ““No part of the past is dead or indifferent.”
The 1852 speech began with appreciation for the sacrifices of America’s founders, but soon moved on to a blistering attack on the slave trade and the two-year-old Fugitive Slave Act, under which the power of the federal government was harnessed to detain and return those who, like Douglass, had managed to escape from bondage. Even in so-called “free” states like New Hampshire, human beings could be returned by slave-catchers to conditions in which they were treated as property.
“Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?” Douglass asked the mostly white audience of more than 500 people. “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice; I must mourn.”
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed,” Douglass thundered. “O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
Under the Fugitive Slave Act, “that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, the liberty and person of every man are put in peril. Your broad republican domain is hunting ground for men. Not for thieves and robbers, enemies of society, merely, but for men guilty of no crime,” Douglass charged.
For Jennifer Kretovic, a member of Concord’s City Council and the Concord Historical Society, the parallel to current events is obvious. In reference to a recent ICE activity, “we’ve had some of that happening here in Concord,” she said this week.
Concord’s reading of the Douglass speech, the second annual, will take place in the shadow of a statue of Franklin Pierce, the New Hampshire-born president who enforced the Fugitive Slave Act, and not far from the statue of Daniel Webster, who negotiated its passage. For Kretovic, it’s a reminder that what was relevant so many years ago is still relevant today. “If we’re not going to be an oppressed nation, then we all need to stand up and speak the truth, and the truth lies in this speech, “she said.
Jim Millikin, president of the Concord Historical Society agreed. “I think our democracy is really under threat right now, and we’ve got to speak up,” he said.
“Douglass’s speech is not a relic of the past. His mastery of language, argumentation, and moral reasoning challenges us today to reflect on hypocrisy, civic responsibility, and the gap between the ideals upon which Manchester was built and our lived reality. His words educate, empower, and inspire us to address the ongoing struggles for racial justice, equality, and civil rights,” commented James McKim, who is organizing a reading sponsored by the Manchester NAACP at the Manchester Public Library.
As Douglass himself said on July 5, 1852, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future. Now is the time, the important time.”
In the words of the Black Heritage Trail, “As we commemorate the ideals of freedom and justice this Fourth of July, let us also commit to advancing the unfinished work of equality for all.”
Douglass concluded the 1852 speech with a hopeful interpretation of the nation’s founding documents, which he insisted promised equality, not enslavement. “The doom of slavery is certain,” he said. “I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
“What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July?” Readings 2025
All the readings take place on Saturday, June 28, at noon.
- Portsmouth, sponsored by Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire at Strawberry
Banke, 14 Hancock St. - Amherst, sponsored by Congregational Church of Amherst at Congregational
Church of Amherst, 11 Church St. - Andover, sponsored by Andover Historical Society, 105 Depot Street, Potter
Place. - Canterbury, sponsored by Canterbury Shaker Village and Elkins Public Library in
the Meeting House at Shaker Village. - Concord, sponsored by Concord Historical Society at City Plaza.
- Dover, sponsored by Dover Public Library at City Hall, 2nd Floor Auditorium, 288
Central Ave. - Exeter, sponsored by Exeter Congregational Church’s Social Justice Team at the
Congregational Church, 21 Front Street. - Hopkinton, sponsored by Hopkinton Historical Society at Hopkinton Town Hall,
330 Main St. - Peterborough, sponsored by Monadnock Center for History and Culture in
partnership with the Hancock Community Conversations on Race at 19 Grove St. - Lebanon, sponsored by Valley Insight Meditation Society at Colburn Park, 51 N
Park St. - Manchester, sponsored by Manchester Branch of the NAACP at Manchester
Public Library, 405 Pine St. - Nashua, sponsored by Greater Nashua Branch of the NAACP at Nashua Library
Gardens, 2 Court St. - Rochester, sponsored by Rochester Opera House at 31 Wakefield St.
- Rollinsford, sponsored by the Association for Rollinsford Culture and History at
Colonel Paul Wentworth House, 47 Water St. - Tamworth, sponsored by Cook Memorial Library in partnership with DEI in the
Lakes & Mountains at Cook Memorial Library, 93 Main St. - Warner, sponsored by Warner Historical Society at Warner Town Hall, 5 E Main
St.
Complete details at https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/frederick-douglass-statewide-
readings/.