Lebanon will join communities across the Upper Valley this year when it hosts a public reading of Frederick Douglass’ famous speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
The reading will take place at noon on Wednesday at Colburn Park and is part of a statewide effort by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. The Lebanon event is co-sponsored by Showing Up for Racial Justice Upper Valley VT/NH, United Valley Interfaith Project, Lebanon libraries and the Valley Insight Meditation Society.
“It’s pretty amazing. It’s just so appropriate for today’s times,” said Carol Rougvie, of Showing Up for Racial Justice, which is commonly known by its acronym, SURJ. “(Douglass is) pretty well-known and respected, and he was such a great orator.”
The speech, first presented on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, N.Y., explored arguments against the slave trade at the time in the United States. Douglass suggested that statements espousing positive values like freedom and citizenship, which proliferate around the Fourth, were an offense to enslaved people who couldn’t enjoy the benefits of those values. He also likened the Founding Fathers’ struggle for liberty from the British to that of slaves hoping to break free from their masters.
Rougvie said she attended a reading of the speech in Quechee and was greatly moved by it. The Vermont Humanities Council coordinates readings throughout the state (for a list of participating Upper Valley towns, see Page B3).
At the readings, members of the public take turns reading from the 54-paragraph speech.
“It’s a long speech, and I can’t single out a specific paragraph, but for me the most important and meaningful part is the whole middle section,” Rougvie wrote in a follow-up email. “He moves away from his opening where he congratulates the founding fathers for their honor and bravery in resisting oppression from the British Crown, and achieving independence to strong and vivid descriptions and declarations of the deprivations of slavery, and scorching critique of the cruelty and hypocrisy of Americans in upholding slavery.
“This powerful section is the longest part of the speech. After this, he shifts again to end briefly with a message of hope as commerce and technological progress are moving countries away from isolation so that practices of slavery can no longer be hidden from the world.”
The reading has been coordinated with the Lebanon Recreation and Parks Department, which will provide a tent, lectern and sound system. SURJ already has had people reaching out to express interest in reading part of the speech.
“I think people can’t help but be moved, particularly if they’re reading it,” Rougvie said. “We welcome people to just come and listen too.”
Editor’s note: For more information about the reading visit www.facebook.com/surjuvvtnh. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
