Frederick Douglass

Allow us the dignity to fight for our own freedom

— Frederick Douglass

Our destiny is largely in our hands.

— Frederick Douglass

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

— Frederick Douglass

He who would be free must strike the first blow.

— Frederick Douglass

One and God make a majority.

— Frederick Douglass

My hopes were never brighter than now.

— Frederick Douglass

Let us render the tyrant no aid.

— Frederick Douglass

It's a poor rule that won't work both ways.

— Frederick Douglass

Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet.

— Frederick Douglass

You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.

— Frederick Douglass

“Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of a more horrible state of society?”

— Frederick Douglass

“most successful one was that of tarring his fence all around; after which, if a slave was caught”

— Frederick Douglass

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

— Frederick Douglass

“The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart”

— Frederick Douglass

The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.

— Frederick Douglass

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.

— Frederick Douglass

In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I…

— Frederick Douglass

Immense wealth, and its lavish expenditure, fill the great house with all that can please the eye, or tempt the taste. Here,…

— Frederick Douglass

To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental…

— Frederick Douglass

From the first I saw no chance of bettering the condition of the freedman until he should cease to be merely a…

— Frederick Douglass

Experience demonstrates that there may be a wages of slavery only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel…

— Frederick Douglass

Money is the measure of morality, and the success or failure of slavery as a money-making system, determines with many whether...it should…

— Frederick Douglass

No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling and action of others, and who has himself…

— Frederick Douglass

It is the mission of the printer to diffuse light and knowledge by a judicious intermingling of black with white.

— Frederick Douglass

The Constitutional framers were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did…

— Frederick Douglass

Power and those in control concede nothing ... without a demand. Hey never have and never will... Each and every one of…

— Frederick Douglass

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes—a justifier of the…

— Frederick Douglass

Having despised us, it is not strange that Americans should seek to render us despicable; having enslaved us, it is natural that…

— Frederick Douglass

The American Constitution is a written instrument full and complete in itself. No Court in America, no Congress, no President, can add…

— Frederick Douglass

“I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among…

— Frederick Douglass

Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, 'What shall we do with the Negro?'…

— Frederick Douglass

“Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems…

— Frederick Douglass

“and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could…

— Frederick Douglass

“We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism to forget the merits of this fearful struggle [the Civil War], and to…

— Frederick Douglass

These dear souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I teach them because it…

— Frederick Douglass

“The South must be opened to the light of law and liberty, and this session of Congress is relied upon to accomplish…

— Frederick Douglass

“Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted…

— Frederick Douglass

“The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction,…

— Frederick Douglass

“If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that…

— Frederick Douglass

“The first two hours of that morning were such as I never experienced before, and hope never to again. Early in the…

— Frederick Douglass