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Site 3 Atheneum Corner of Federal and India Streets. The Atheneum is Nantucket’s public library. It was established during the 1820’s and moved in 1834 a remodeled building that had been the Universalist Church. It was the site of lectures by prominent cultural and political leaders of the day and the site of abolitionist meetings and conventions. On August 11, 1841, young Frederick Douglass (c.1817-1895), a former slave who had come from New Bedford for the island’s first anti-slavery convention, was moved to make his first public speech before a mixed-race audience. A year later, another anti-slavery convention degenerated into riot. The convention was evicted from the Atheneum and was refused use of several other locations. It wound up at the Big Shop, a large building on the edge of town where whaleboats were built. Douglass also spoke at the 1843 convention. |
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