Speeches and Declarations Made during the Centennial (1876)
George Washington Williams — a Black minister, state legislator, and Civil War veteran — delivered this speech at a July 4th Centennial celebration in Ohio. He stressed the essential contributions made by Black Americans during the American Revolution and in all aspects of American progress since.
The American Negro, from 1776 to 1876 – July 4, 1876
George Washington Williams
This document — composed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Susan B. Anthony, three leaders of the National Woman Suffrage Association — was read aloud by Anthony, without formal permission, at the national Centennial proceedings in Philadelphia.
Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States - July 4, 1876
National Woman Suffrage Association
Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent Congregationalist minister, delivered this speech at a July 4th Centennial gathering in Peekskill, New York. The tone was enthusiastic and celebratory as Beecher emphasized the enormous progress the nation had made, in all aspects, since the Revolution. He put particular stress on the abolition of slavery, while noting, with regret, that women still suffered unequal status under the law.
The Advance of a Century – July 4, 1876
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher