A public reading of one of the 19^th century’s most famous speeches will take place at noon on July 3^rd at the Strawbery Banke Museum Visitor’s Center in Portsmouth.

“What to the Slaves is the Fourth of July?” asked Frederick Douglass in 1852.

Douglass, one of our nation’s greatest orators and abolitionists, was asked to speak at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In his provocative speech, Douglass said, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he asked, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”

This free public event is sponsored by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire and Strawbery Banke Museum.

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