HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON
  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
      • Relationship Map Family Groups
      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
    • Donate to the Spring Appeal
    • WAYS TO GIVE >
      • Monthly Donation
      • IRA Giving
      • Stock Giving
    • Join the Email List
    • Donate to the Collection

reading frederick douglass together

Reading Frederick Douglass Together 2025
Join us for a Public Reading of Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Address
​On the Grounds of Historic Northampton, 46 Bridge Street, Northampton, MA
Satuday, July 5, 2025 at 11 am
Rain Date: Sunday, July 6, 2025 at 11 am
Picture
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 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.  This event is free and open to the public. 

200 chairs will be available.  Feel free to bring your own chair.

​
The Northampton event is organized in collaboration with State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa.

Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene will give the opening and closing remarks.  Power-Greene is chair of the Northampton Reparations Study Commission and professor of history at Clark University.

​Historic Northampton received a Reading Frederick Douglass Together grant from Mass Humanities with funding made possible from the Mass Cultural Council. 
During the reading, the grounds are closed to dog walking.  Certified service dogs only, please.

"This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.  You may rejoice, I must mourn."
Read the full speech

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’ 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.
Learn More

"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 gros
s injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim."

- Frederick Douglass, 1852

Picture
Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a statewide initiative coordinated by Mass Humanities.
Now in its 16th year, the program will take place in communities across Massachusetts.
www.masshumanities.org
Watch a Filmed Reading
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

Photographs of the Northampton Reading Frederick Douglass Together event in 2022 by Paul Shoul.
HISTORIC
​NORTHAMPTON
46 Bridge Street
Northampton
​Massachusetts 01060
[email protected]
​413-584-6011
Current Exhibit:
​Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783


Exhibit Hours
July and August Hours:

Wednesday - Sunday
11 am to 5 pm
© COPYRIGHT 2015-2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
      • Relationship Map Family Groups
      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
    • Donate to the Spring Appeal
    • WAYS TO GIVE >
      • Monthly Donation
      • IRA Giving
      • Stock Giving
    • Join the Email List
    • Donate to the Collection