It was another stirring live reading of Frederick Douglass's speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' at the Federated Church, a designated stop on the MV African American Heritage Trail. Each year, we celebrate Independence Day with this important commemoration of Douglass's landmark speech.

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Born into slavery about 1818, Douglass later successfully escaped north to Massachusetts at age twenty and became the voice against slavery. Fearing capture and re-enslavement, Douglass went to England, continued to exclaim against slavery, and raised enough money to buy his freedom to return to America. He settled in Rochester, NY and became a champion of equality and freedom for enslaved people. Douglass also was active in the women’s suffrage movement and established a newspaper that centered its focus on fundamental human rights and the intersection between slavery, the treatment of black people, and women. He had become a man of international stature and was perhaps the most important person to speak at the Federated Church and on Martha’s Vineyard in the 19th century.