Best Quotes from The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass with Page Numbers

I have come to tell you something about slavery—what I know of it, as I have felt it.

My blood has sprung out as the lash embedded itself in my flesh.

I have seen this pious class leader cross and tie the hands of one of his young female slaves, and lash her on the bare skin.

A large portion of the slaves know that they have a right to their liberty.

Oh! what joy and gladness it produced to know that so great, so good a man was pleading for us.

My friends let it not be quieted, for upon you the slaves look for help.

Emancipation, my friends, is that cure for slavery and its evils.

Ah! how the slave yearns for it, that he may be secure from the lash, that he may enjoy his family.

The whip we can bear without a murmur, compared to the idea of separation.

Remember George Latimer in bonds as bound with him.

I am but a plain, blunt man—a poor slave, or, rather, one who has been a slave.

The time for argument upon this question is over, so far as the right of the slave to himself is concerned.

I go to that land, not to foster her national pride, or utter fulsome words about her greatness.

America presents to the world an anomaly, such as no other nation ever did or can present before mankind.

But what does this language really mean, sir? What is its signification, as shadowed forth practically, in that constitution?

This clause of the constitution is one of the most deadly enactments against the natural rights of man.

The very man who ascends the platform, and is greeted with rounds of applause when he comes forward to speak on the subject of extending the victories of the cross of Christ...has actually come to that missionary meeting with money red with the blood of the slave.

Sir, the slavery takes refuge in the churches of the United States; will explain to you another fact, which is that the opponents of slavery in America are almost universally branded there—and, I am sorry to say, to some extent in this country also—as infidels.

I glory in the conflict, that I may hereafter exult in the victory.

I will tell my coloured brethren how Englishmen feel for their miseries.

The infernal system of Slavery is receiving a powerful shock in the West.

We are having a real Anti-Slavery revival.

Let the winds of an approving Heaven fan it, and, guided by the hand that stays the thunder-bolt, and directs the storm, its holy flames shall burn up, and utterly consume the last vestige of tyranny in our land.

The power of Church and State are shaken.

The people are fired with a noble indignation against a slaveholding Church.

Our gallant army in Mexico is looked upon as a band of legalized murderers and plunderers.

The field here is truly ripe for the harvest.

With money and right-minded men we could place Ohio in advance of Massachusetts in twelve months.

Let us not continue to render aid and comfort to the tyrant-master!

We are one with you in social and political disfranchisement.

"There is a power above us that can 'bring down high looks'; at the breath of whose mouth our wealth may take wings; and before whom every knee shall bow."

"No laws, no statutes, no compacts, no covenants, no compromises, no constitutions, can abrogate or destroy it. It is beyond the reach of the strongest earthly arm, and smiles at the ravings of tyrants from its hiding place in the bosom of God."

"There is no real difficulty in arriving at right conclusions, in a case so plain as that of slavery; for with respect to this giant sin, if 'a man’s eye be single, his whole body may be full of light.'"

"The desire for liberty is inscribed on the heart of every man."

"The only thing that really holds anyone down is that of a cowardly resignation to evil. Fight for the rights that belong to you as a human being!"

"Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment."

"Every slave is justified in running away from slavery, and never returning."

"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke."

"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."

"I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgement is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just."

SLAVERY is, beyond all comparison, the first and greatest evil in this country.

It is not less the voice of reason and nature, than it is the voice of the sacred scriptures, that freedom is a fundamental condition of accountability and the foundation of all manly virtue.

We speak unto wise men; judge ye what we say.

There is a natural order of things, and in this order the abolition of slavery in this country stands first.

The principle would make party action, or combined effort impossible.

Further, he might say, "If I save that man yonder, who is battling with the waves for life, may not that perishing woman, with her babe in her arms, justly feel herself neglected?" This reasoning would be quite as much entitled to respect as his, who would not vote to attain one or more great political blessings.

We ask no man to lose sight of any of his aims and objects. We only ask that they may be allowed to serve out their natural probation.

Abolish slavery; remove this stupendous system of iniquity, under whose death-like shade moral feeling is deadened, and intellect languishes, and you have done a double good.

Let the two systems of free labor and slave labor meet, and decide the great question between them fairly, without congressional or executive interference.

The mere repeal of that compromise apart from such objects as are now contemplated, standing alone, is a thing to which the friends of freedom might properly assent.

A man that will not defend himself is not fit to defend a good cause.

I have a right to be here and a duty to perform here.

The genius of American institutions knows no privileged class or classes.

Every right of human nature, as such, is denied them—they are dumb in their chains!

The right of speech is a very precious one, especially to the oppressed.

I would not approve the silencing of Mr. Douglas, may we not hope that this slight abridgment of his rights may lead him to respect in some degree the rights of other men.

Liberty and slavery cannot dwell together forever in the same country.

The just demands of liberty are inconsistent with the overgrown exactions of the slave power.

The progress of these principles has been constant, steady, strong and certain.

God will be true though every man be a liar.

To the strong eye of faith there is no darkness, no difficulties, no defeat, but the whole heavens are bathed in the golden light of victory.

The whole moral atmosphere of the South has undergone a decided change for the worse.

Let but the right of speech be once established in the slave States; let but the dumb millions be allowed to speak...we shall see where slavery will stand in the judgment of the Southern people.

Men who live by robbing their fellow-men of their labor and liberty, have forfeited their right to know anything of the thoughts, feelings or purposes of those whom they rob and plunder.

If speech alone could have abolished slavery, the work would have been done long ago.

Those who boast of the good effects of the discussion of slavery are the men who imprison, shoot, and stab...

The audacity of the attack made upon it by that stern old hero...has created for the moment...a more active resistance to the cause of freedom and its advocates.

Sad and deplorable as was the battle of Harper’s Ferry, it will not prove a total loss to the cause of Liberty.

The Christian blood of Old John Brown will not cease to cry from the ground long after the clamors of alarm and consternation of the dealers in the bodies and souls of men will have ceased to arrest attention.

If a man were on board of a pirate ship...his whole duty would not be performed simply by taking to the long boat and singing out, “No union with pirates!”

‘A new order of events connected with the great question of slavery is now fairly opening upon the country, the end whereof the most sagacious and far-sighted are unable to see and declare.’

‘Lincoln’s election has vitiated their authority, and broken their power. It has taught the North its strength, and shown the South its weakness.’

‘The present alarm and perturbation will cease; the Southern fire-eaters will be appeased and will retrace their steps.’

‘The safety of our movement will be found only by a return to all the agencies and appliances, such as writing, publishing, organizing, lecturing, holding meetings, with the earnest aim not to prevent the extension of slavery, but to abolish the system altogether.’

‘We have the pen, voice and influence of only one man, and that man of the most limited class; but with few or many, in whatever vicissitudes which may surround the cause, now or hereafter, we shall join in no cry, and unite in no demand less than the complete and universal abolition of the whole slave system.’

‘Slavery shall be destroyed.’

‘Hitherto the threat of disunion has been as potent over the politicians of the North, as the cat-o’-nine-tails is over the backs of the slaves.’

‘The moral influence of such prompt, complete and unflinching execution of the laws, will be great...’

‘The very submission of the slave to his chains is held as an evidence of his fitness to be a slave.’

‘To break open a man’s trunk, to read the letters from his wife and daughters, to tar and feather him, to ride him on a rail, is a privilege and immunity which our Southern brethren will not give up...’

"Our Government will not perish by these miserable foes, nor by want of a good cause to defend, or the necessary physical material to defend that cause."

"We not only refuse to strike the slaveholders with both hands, but so completely disable ourselves by slavery as to give them decided advantages in striking us with both theirs."

"Men in earnest don’t fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand."

"A blow struck for the freedom of the slave, is equally a blow struck for the safety and welfare of the country."

"If we fail, we shall fail by moral causes, not by outward strength, but by internal weakness."

"The thing which we wish here and now to urge upon public attention, and which is the central ideal of all our lectures … is that no amount of physical courage or strength can possibly supply the place of wisdom and justice."

"The day is not far off when the colored man will stand up and claim ... not only for himself but for all mankind, that encroachment violates human dignity and rights."

"If the Government could fall in a manly struggle to advance the cause of freedom and justice towards a long enslaved people, it would be glorious even in its fall."

"The very reluctance of the Government to strike the blow at present may be necessary to make it all the more powerful, effectual and successful when it is struck."

"What shall be done with the four million slaves, if they are emancipated? I answer, do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them mind theirs."

The satanic spirit of colonization, craftily veiling itself in the livery of Heaven, and speaking in the name of Divine Providence, proceeds with more than usual vigor to unchain, and let loose upon us, all the malignant and satanic influences of the country.

If the colored people instead of having been stolen and forcibly brought to the United States had come as free immigrants, they never would have become the objects of aversion and bitter persecution.

All this and more, as to the moral disposition and tendency of colonization, may be seen in this August number of the Colonization Herald.

The nature of the negro is very much like human nature generally, and we do not know that two hundred years of slavery was ever expected by any sensible man, to make any favorable 'change' in it.

The essence of its teachings respecting the negro is summed up in the following brief extract from its columns.

If his destiny be not that of some kind of servile inferiority to the white man, separation from him is necessary to the negro’s highest elevation and happiness.

The ban of nature ordinarily prevents intermarriage with the whites.

The cry for elbow room, which would push us off an island, will in due time push us off a continent; and finally off the Globe!

It is easy to point to the Moors of North Africa, and to the mongrel races of Mexico, but until it can be shown that the vices of those peoples are the direct or indirect result of amalgamation, nothing is proved against amalgamation.

If he has taught us to confide in nothing else, he has taught us to confide in his word.

Freedom is the inalienable right of all men, and was first secured by the blood of those who struck the blow for liberty.

To arms! To arms! It is time to strike for freedom!

Let the oppressor fall by the hand of his slave.

Grace, justice, and propriety require that the black man shall no longer be held a slave.

A man’s a man for a’ that.

Better even die free, than to live slaves.

This is our golden opportunity—let us accept it.

Remember that in a contest with oppression, the Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with oppressors.

Only a moderate share of sagacity was needed to see that the arm of the slave was the best defence against the arm of the slaveholder.

The case is before you. This is your hour, and mine.

Without undue vanity or unjust depreciation of others, we may claim to be, in many respects, the most fortunate of nations.

The dawn is already upon us. It is bright and full of promise.

We are at the beginning of our ascent.

Perfect civil equality to the people of all races and of all creeds.

A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men.

There are clouds, wind, smoke and dust and noise over head and around, and there always will be; but no genuine thunder threatens from any quarter.

We have for a long time hesitated to adopt and carry out the only principle which can solve that difficulty and give peace, strength and security to the Republic, and that is the principle of absolute equality.

The apprehension that we shall be swamped or swallowed up by Mongolian civilization... does not seem entitled to much respect.

If we would reach a degree of civilization higher and grander than any yet attained, we should welcome to our ample continent all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples.

The whole of humanity, like the whole of everything else, is ever greater than a part.

The spirit of slavery and barbarism, which still lingers to blight and destroy in some dark and distant parts of our country, would have made our assembling here to-day the signal and excuse for opening upon us all the flood-gates of wrath and violence.

That we are here in peace to-day is a compliment and credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future.

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.

For the first time in the history of our people, and in the history of the whole American people, we join in this high worship and march conspicuously in the line of this time-honored custom.

We fully comprehend the relation of Abraham Lincoln, both to ourselves and the white people of the United States.

Though he loved Caesar less than Rome, though the Union was more to him than our freedom or our future, under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood.

He was a mystery to no man who saw him and heard him.

His great mission was to accomplish two things; first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin, and second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery.

There is little necessity on this occasion to speak at length and critically of this great and good man, and of his high mission in the world.

The time and energy expended in wandering about from place to place, if employed in making him comfortable where he is, will, in nine cases out of ten, prove the best investment.

Few evils are less accessible to the force of reason, or more tenacious of life and power, than a long-standing prejudice.

It is a moral disorder, which creates the conditions necessary to its own existence, and fortifies itself by refusing all contradiction.

Prejudice of race has at some time in their history afflicted all nations.

Long after the Norman invasion and the decline of Norman power... the descendants of the invaders continued to regard their Saxon brothers as made of coarser clay than themselves.

Though eight hundred years have passed away... men in that country still boast their Norman origin and Norman perfections.

Having seen the Saxon a menial, oppressed and dejected for centuries, it was easy to invest him with all sorts of odious peculiarities.

Without crime or offense against law or gospel, the colored man is the Jean Valjean of American society.

He has ceased to be the slave of an individual, but has in some sense become the slave of society.

If prejudice of race and color is only natural in the sense that ignorance, superstition, bigotry, and vice are natural, then it has no better defense than they, and should be despised and put away.

A wrong done to one man, is a wrong done to all men.

It is not to be taken merely as a formal recognition of your election demanded and responded to by custom, but as a letter expressive of sincere friendship for Your Excellency and a fervent hope for the success of Your Government and for the happiness of your people.

Haiti has never flinched when called by her right name. She has never been ashamed of her cause or of her color.

Her presence here to-day is a proof that she has the courage and ability to stand up and be counted in the great procession of our nineteenth century’s civilization.

No act of hers is more creditable than her presence here.

These men of the negro race, came brave men, men who loved liberty more than life.

They not only gained their liberty and independence, but they have never surrendered what they gained to any power on earth.

Aye, and they… hold to-day, and I venture to say here in the ear of all the world that they never will surrender that inheritance.

The world will never cease to wonder at the failure of the French and the success of the blacks.

Haiti… has made good that declaration down to 1893.

Her spirit was unbroken and her brave sons were still at large in her mountains ready to continue the war.

I am here to speak for, and to defend, so far as I can do so within the bounds of truth, a long-suffering people, and one just now subject to much misrepresentation and persecution.

I propose to give you a colored man’s view of the unhappy relations at present existing between the white and colored people of the Southern States of our union.

The so-called, but mis-called, negro problem is one of the most important and urgent subjects that can now engage public attention.

Its solution involves the honor or dishonor, glory or shame, happiness or misery of the whole American people.

The presence of eight millions of people in any section of this country constituting an aggrieved class... is a disgrace and scandal to that particular section but a menace to the peace and security of the people of the whole country.

For certain it is, that crime allowed to go on unresisted and unarrested will breed crime.

When the poison of anarchy is once in the air, like the pestilence that walketh in the darkness, the winds of heaven will take it up and favor its diffusion.

The great trouble with the negro in the South is, that all presumptions are against him.

With General Grant and every other honest man, my motto is, 'Let no guilty man escape.' But while I am here to say this, I am here also to say, let no innocent man be condemned and killed by the mob.

I dare to contend for the colored people of the United States that they are a law-abiding people, and I dare to insist upon it that they or any man, black or white, accused of crime shall have a fair trial before he is punished.