frederick Douglass

“I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity.”

“The lessons of all the ages upon this point is that a wrong done to one man is a wrong done to all men.”  [The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass]

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”  [in an Oct. 22, 1883 speech in Washington, D.C.]

“Slavery is  not abolished until the black man has the ballot.”  [in a Feb. 1, 1865 speech to the Anti-Slavery Society]

“Slaves sing the most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart.” 

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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... Power concedes nothing with a demand... Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get.”

“War begins where reason ends.”