Frederick Douglass

The Abolitionists were right in their attitude to the Church. Slavery and the Church were side by side: the Church was at peace with slavery: men were sold to build churches, women sold to pay missionaries, and children sold to buy Bibles. …

I recognize the Republican party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.

Whatever the future may have in store for us, one thing is certain; this new revolution in human thought will never go backward. When a great truth once gets abroad in the world, no power on earth can imprison it, or prescribe its limits, …

It is only prejudice against the negro which calls every one, however nearly connected with the white race, and however remotely connected with the negro race, a negro

When that day shall come, they will not pervert and sin against the verity of language as they now do by calling a man of mixed blood, a negro; they will tell the truth

I am not a propagandist, but a prophet. I do not say that what I say should come to pass, but what I think is likely to come to pass, and what is inevitable. While I would not be understood as advocating the desirability of such a result, …

Laying aside all prejudice in favor of or against race, looking at the negro as politically and socially related to the American people generally, and measuring the forces arrayed against him, I do not see how he can survive and flourish …

As I have often said before, we should not measure the negro from the heights which the white race has attained, but from the depths from which he has come. You will not find Burke, Grattan, Curran and O’Connell among the oppressed and …

It is quite impossible, at this early date, to say with any decided emphasis what the future of the colored people will be. Speculations of that kind, thus far, have only reflected the mental bias and education of the many who have essayed …

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.

nowhere, outside of the United States is any man denied civil rights on account of his color

In all the relations of life and death, we are met by the color line.

Despite of it all, the Negro remains … cool, strong, imperturbable, and cheerful.

neither West Point nor the Democratic party have been good schools in which to learn justice and fair play to the negro

He was never loud and noisy, but calm and serene as a summer sky, and as pure.

Not only was Sunday a Sabbath, but all days were Sabbaths, and to be kept holy.

I loved this paper and its editor. He seemed to me an all-sufficient match to every opponent, whether they spoke in the name of the law or the gospel. His words were full of holy fire, and straight to the point. Something of a …

I was brought into contact with the mind of Mr. Garrison, and his paper took a place in my heart second only to the Bible.

When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to read, every increase of knowledge, especially anything respecting the free states, was an additional weight to the almost intolerable burden of my thought, 'I am a slave …

His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine-it was as the burning sun to my taper light-mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the boundless shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for him.

A man's right to speak does not depend upon where he was born or upon his color. The simple quality of manhood is the solid basis of the right-and there let it rest forever.

The principle must rest upon its own proper basis.

[T]here must be no concessions to the enemy. When a man is allowed to speak because he is rich and powerful, it aggravates the crime of denying the right to the poor and humble.

Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob …