We are running a series of posts this week in honor of the anniversary of the 1880 Emancipation Day celebration in Elmira, which was highlighted by a speech from Frederick Douglass that Twain (possibly) attended. Foremost, we have reconstructed the speech itself from a combination of Douglass's manuscript at Library of Congress and newspaper transcriptions which were likely based on the missing portion of that manuscript. You can view all the documents yourself, as well as read the speech, at MarkTwainStudies.com/LessonsOfEmancipation With help from numerous colleagues, including Bob Hirst of MTP and Mallory Howard of MTH&M, I have also compiled much of what we do (and do not) know about the Douglass-Twain relationship. This is a pretty common question we get from scholars and teachers, so I wanted to put all the evidence in one place. I do this partially under the guise of answering the question, "Was Twain there in 1880?" But the post draws upon documentation of their relationship from 1869 to 1884: MarkTwainStudies.com/FredDouglassMarkTwain We will also be sharing some additional resources later in the week, including a podcast episode with Jill Spivey Caddell and Shirley Samuels, the recording of Dr. Caddell's recent Park Church Lecture on John W. Jones, and an overview of the newspaper coverage of the Emancipation Day celebrations. We hope you'll find these, and all the resources at MarkTwainStudies.org, useful! *Matt Seybold, PhD* Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Mark Twain Studies Editor, MarkTwainStudies.org Host, The American Vandal Podcast <https://marktwainstudies.com/the-american-vandal-podcast/> Peterson Chapel Vestry, Cowles Hall [log in to unmask] MattSeybold.com <https://www.elmira.edu/>