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The Talbot County native, often considered the most important abolitionist and civil rights leader of his time, delivered an address that described why enslaved African Americans weren’t afforded the same freedoms and liberties that could allow them to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence like the rest of the nation.

Douglass’ famous speech is still popular 173 years later. On Saturday, the Easton-based Frederick Douglass Honor Society is hosting an annual community reading. Local officials, community leaders, residents and children are reading aloud portions of the address on the lawn of the Talbot County Courthouse starting at 10 a.m.

Vickie Wilson, the society’s treasurer, says this year’s calendar couldn’t have worked out any better, with the event falling on the same day Douglass spoke to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.

“What’s really exciting for us this year is that the first time Douglass read this speech was on July 5, 1852,� Wilson said. “And now, it falls again on July 5.�

The Frederick Douglass Honor Society has held the reading annually since 2018, though it was put on pause last year for a separate event. Wilson says this year’s return is exciting due to the diversity of people — in age, race, occupation and more — participating in the reading. Fifty-nine people are expected to step up to the podium.

“We live in a diverse community,� Wilson said. “It’s going to show the love that we have for this community as well.�

Douglass in his 1852 speech explained the significantly different perspective enslaved people had on the Fourth of July holiday.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim,� Douglass said.

He continued: “To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.�

Wilson says the Talbot County tradition during the week of Independence Day is a moving one. She encourages people, no matter how they celebrate the holiday the rest of the week, to attend on Saturday.

She said the speech is a “lot to unpack,� but extremely powerful. It still resonates with her today, and she believes it does for many Talbot County residents.

“It still matters today,� Wilson said. “And I often think it matters more today in the climate that we’re in right now. Everything here about this speech is still relevant.�