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READING FREDERICK DOUGLASS TOGETHER
2022 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Join us for a public reading of his Fourth of July Address
No Rain Date
Sunday, July 3rd at 10 am – 12 pm
The Robbins House, Concord MA
Across from the North Bridge
Hosted by The Robbins House
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Sponsored by Mass Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Considered one of the most daring, eloquent speeches in the English language, Frederick Douglass’s fiery 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” challenges its audience, then and now, to consider the meaning of freedom, citizenship, and patriotism. After this initial reading, the audience will be invited to join the actors for a community reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech. A facilitated audience dialogue will follow the readings. Kid’s activities will be available throughout the program. Visitors are welcomed to bring folding chairs and picnic blankets. Tours of the Robbins House will be available before and after the program.
![Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? We have you covered with a little Robbins house trivia. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem entitled Peter’s Field. Peter’s Field most likely referenced Peter Hutchinson, who was the last African American owner of The Robbins House. Peter purchased the home in 1852 and lived with his wife, Nancy, and several of their children in the home until 1868. Emerson described Peter’s farm, and by extension the original area of farmland attached to The Robbins House out in the Great Field like this:
KNOWS he who tills this lonely field
To reap its scanty corn,
What mystic fruit his acres yield
At midnight and at morn?]
That field by spirits bad and good,
By Hell and Heaven is haunted,
And every rood in the hemlock wood
I know is ground enchanted.
[In the long sunny afternoon
The plain was full of ghosts:
I wandered up,
I wandered down,
Beset by pensive hosts.
For in those lonely grounds the sun
Shines not as on the town,
In nearer arcs his journeys run,
And nearer stoops the moon.
There in a moment I have seen
The buried Past arise;
The fields of Thessaly grew green,
Old gods forsook the skies.
Happy Reading!](https://robbinshouse.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)