July 4th and Frederick Douglass

Quechee DEI Council continued events even during summer’s sun and a plethora of outdoor activities.

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a speech at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York, at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass himself escaped slavery in 1838 and became a leader of the abolitionist movement.

On July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the DEI Council, in conjunction with the Quechee Library, presented its tenth annual reading of Douglass’ speech: “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro.”

DEI chair Matt Donahue moderated the participatory reading and Vermont State Senator Joe Major gave a brief commentary, noting that Frederick Douglass gave his speech not on July 4, but on July 5, because of how it confronted hypocrisy: the hypocrisy that people of African descent were still in the bondage of slavery and not at all free.

DEI chair Matt Donahue moderated the participatory reading.

Joe Major asked the audience prior to the reading, “What can you do to truly make it [the US] a more perfect union?”

The reading aloud was shared by the audience, the words still reverberating with not only logical content but also great emotion, and, unfortunately, still great relevance.

Douglass admonishes the country: “You profess to believe that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth, and hath commanded all men, everywhere, to love on another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own.”

Douglass emphatically lays out the irony embedded in the Declaration of Independence and reminds us that that which is inhuman cannot be divine! “The feeling of the nation must be pondered; 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. What to the American slave, is your fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

Comments garnered from the participants included Andrea Pitera, who said, “I wish these words didn’t still hold true today.” Earl Hatley remarked, “As an Abenaki citizen, I find this interesting … the speech is about slaves, but the Abenakis were also enslaved and taken to the Caribbean … [later] the Abenaki fought with the Green Mountain Boys and with [other indigenous people] had a peaceful dialogue at Ticonderoga … After the Abenakis saved Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen turned on them.” This is history rarely considered. (Earl Hatley continues to be the diligent steward of the Abenaki Garden!)

Despite the darkness Douglass points to, he does not despair but has hope still “showing encouragement” from the Declaration of Independence. Likewise, Joe Major, in a closing remark said, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train!”

To continue the hope, the DEI Council held an essay contest on Frederick Douglass’ speech and the Declaration of Independence. The winning Hartford High School student was Jackson Whitney, who received a $1,000 scholarship. The DEI Council plans to reach out beyond Hartford High School students to enter the essay contest and trusts that the participants of the event will continue grow! n

At the end of Douglass’s speech he quoted William Lloyd Garrison:
All God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow! In every clime be understood,

The Claims of human brotherhood, 
And each return for evil, good, Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend Each foe. ~ William Lloyd Garrison