More than 40 volunteers took turns Tuesday morning, reciting sections of the over 10,000 word address that Frederick Douglass first delivered to the Rochester Sewing and Anti-Slavery Society on July 5, 1852.

On the fifth anniversary of the Federated Church’s dedication as part of The African-American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, 14 Island residents gathered in the space to recite Frederick Douglass’s speech What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

Frederick Douglass died over 100 years ago, but his words were very much alive Saturday at the Federated Church in Edgartown.

This Saturday, the pioneering abolitionist, feminist and master orator visits the Tabernacle stage again, in Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show, Frederick Douglass Now.

Each year on the Fourth of July, the Edgartown Federated Church hosts a reading of Frederick Douglass’s speech, The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro.

The following is excerpted from a speech delivered by Frederick Douglass to the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on July 5, 1852.

The words of Frederick Douglass rang out from the Federated Church in Edgartown Tuesday, as readers recited the abolitionist orator’s famous speech.

The Federated Church will host a reading of Frederick Douglass’s powerful speech The Meaning of Fourth of July to the Negro.

Frederick Douglas, the colored orator, addressed a very respectable, though not large audience, at the Town Hall, on Saturday evening last, on the Unity of the Races. His arguments in favor of a common origin of mankind were very logical, and doubtless deemed conclusive by the great majority of his hearers. He is a fluent and powerful speaker, and commands uninterrupted attention.

It is very much to be deplored that the subject of slavery in our country has become such a paramount interest in politics, as nearly to drive away from consideration other topics of general political interest, which the welfare of the country demands to be up for discussion. We ought now to take measures to remedy the present financial crisis and business embarrassment, and adopt measures to guard in the future against similar disasters.