‘What to the slaves is the Fourth of July?’
Dozens gathered in Hopkinton Town Hall on Wednesday for a public reading of one of the 19th century’s most well-known and powerful speeches by one of its greatest orators.
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was asked to speak at an event in Rochester, N.Y., commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. African-Americans were barred from marching with white men’s parades on the official holiday, and July 5 was known as “Black Man’s Independence Day.”
So when Douglass gave his speech to mark this anniversary, he asked, “What to the slaves is the Fourth of July?”
