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88a84af
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If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand...
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Frederick Douglass |
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ddd64c6
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I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land... I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the ..
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slavery
lowly-jesus
ministers
missionaries
solemn-prayer
hypocrites
devils
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Frederick Douglass |
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5f029a5
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I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
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Frederick Douglass |
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31089e4
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In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky -- her grand old woods -- her fertile fields -- her beautiful rivers -- her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, -- when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethr..
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wrong
disregard
robbery
slaveholding
curse
loathing
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Frederick Douglass |
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e7b0558
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I have observed this in my experience of slavery, - that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be ab..
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slavery
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Frederick Douglass |
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66e0cc6
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Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet de..
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Frederick Douglass |
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d1bb5e3
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Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.
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Frederick Douglass |
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0ea6c37
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The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted woul..
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slavery
reading
frederick-douglass
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Frederick Douglass |
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0313c03
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The marriage institution cannot exist among slaves, and one sixth of the population of democratic America is denied it's privileges by the law of the land. What is to be thought of a nation boasting of its liberty, boasting of it's humanity, boasting of its Christianity, boasting of its love of justice and purity, and yet having within its own borders three millions of persons denied by law the right of marriage?
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racism
same-sex-marriage
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Frederick Douglass |
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b367ff1
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I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of the slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to enslavement, I should regard being the slave..
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slavery
religion
frederick-douglass
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Frederick Douglass |
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d78c0be
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I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do. I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which wa..
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music
frederick-douglass
jazz
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Frederick Douglass |
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dc9d254
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A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.
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occupation
situation
lifestyle
cause-and-effect
condition
work-ethic
circumstances
job
trade
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Frederick Douglass |
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da85a37
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I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hatethe corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.
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Frederick Douglass |
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f8f775f
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I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor. But I should be false to the earlierst sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep convicti..
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slavery
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Frederick Douglass |
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9717ed4
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A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnamity.
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Frederick Douglass |
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1d426d2
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For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.
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religious
religious-slaveholders
slaveholders
frederick-douglass
hypocrisy
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Frederick Douglass |
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4036df0
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Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was very present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.
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freedom
inspirational
beauty-in-literature
freedom-of-expression
freedom-of-speech
freedom-of-thought
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Frederick Douglass |
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d481281
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You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.
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Frederick Douglass |
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59ab19c
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The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness.
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Frederick Douglass |
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d998938
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You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and M a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedoms swift winged angels, that fly around the world; I am confined in the bands of iron! O that I were free! O, that if I were on one of your gallant decks, under your protecting wing! Alas! Betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O, that I could al..
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escape
freedom
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Frederick Douglass |
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cc3f0c0
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If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will... Men may not get ..
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Frederick Douglass |
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2915e3b
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We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen, all for the glory of God and the good of souls. The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave trade go hand in hand.
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slavery
revivals
slave
slave-owners
piety
superstition
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Frederick Douglass |
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32d43f0
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Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born circa 1818 - February 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, women's suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia", Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African-American and United States history. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American..
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Frederick Douglass |
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cdb8e1b
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But I should be false in the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.
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Frederick Douglass |
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540e23c
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We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
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Frederick Douglass |
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ff07fe2
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The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated. That whic..
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Frederick Douglass |
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f59a157
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It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael's unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings.
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Frederick Douglass |
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6a0046d
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What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one,..
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slavery
pharisaism
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Frederick Douglass |
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de6476b
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it was worth half-cent to kill a "nigger", and a half-cent to bury one."
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Frederick Douglass |
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0cb0460
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They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors. Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land;
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Frederick Douglass |
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af8f1ec
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We have all met a class of men, very remarkable for their activity, and who yet make but little headway in life; men who, in their noisy and impulsive pursuit of knowledge, never get beyond the outer bark of an idea, from a lack of patience and perseverance to dig to the core; men who begin everything and complete nothing; who see, but do not perceive; who read, but forget what they read, and are as if they had not read; who travel but go n..
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Frederick Douglass |
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ddb2de8
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I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.
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Frederick Douglass |
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7830d3a
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The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, 'They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
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Frederick Douglass |
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79e501e
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These dear souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school, they were liable to be taken up, and given thirty-nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doin..
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slavery
learning
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Frederick Douglass |
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8d72810
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Experience is a keen teacher;
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Frederick Douglass |
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1e09d2c
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I had a wholesome dread of the consequences of running in debt.
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Frederick Douglass |
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845c5ff
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Such are the limitations of the human mind, and so thoroughly engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among men can discern through the glitter and dazzle of present prosperity the dark outlines of approaching disasters, even though they may have come up to our very gates, and are already within striking distance. The yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal their defects from the mariner until the storm calls all hands to ..
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Frederick Douglass |
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c638b1f
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A man must be disposed to judge of emancipation by other tests than whether it has increased the produce of sugar,--and to hate slavery for other reasons than because it starves men and whips women,--before he is ready to lay the first stone of his anti-slavery life.
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Frederick Douglass |
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6a9c56d
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The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class- leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty ..
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Frederick Douglass |
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fcfee48
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Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.
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Frederick Douglass |
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d5f91a4
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I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.
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Frederick Douglass |
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b1a1359
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The destiny of the colored American ... is the destiny of America.
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Frederick Douglass |
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2d272e4
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Despite of it all, the Negro remains ... cool, strong, imperturbable, and cheerful.
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Frederick Douglass |
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0a2fee8
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In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the color line.
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Frederick Douglass |