About 50 people gathered in the Center at 10 on the morning of the Fourth of July to either participate in or listen to a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The idea grew out of a different reading — Frederick Douglass’s “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” speech of 1852 — at the Canterbury Shaker Village the Saturday before.

As one of the readers of the Declaration, I can say the experience was inspirational, just as the Douglass speech is a call to conscience. I hope both readings become Canterbury traditions.

Want to read them for yourself? Here’s a link to the Declaration, as well as one to the Douglass speech.

~ Mark Travis

(Thanks to Beth Blair for the photos.)