Literary Birthday – 14 February – Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born 14 February 1818, and died 20 February 1895.

Frederick Douglass Quotes

1. 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.
2. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
3. 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. It never did and it never will. (Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings)
4. It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
5. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
6. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
7. 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 horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
8. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
9. The white man’s happiness cannot be purchased by the black man’s misery. (source)
10. The American people have this to learn: that where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property is safe.

Frederick Douglass was an African-American abolitionist, social reformer, orator, writer, newspaper publisher, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement. Douglass wrote several autobiographies, including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. The U.S. Library of Congress digitised its holdings of Douglass’s papers, which include letters, speeches, and personal documents.

Source for image: Public Domain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_Douglass_(circa_1879)_(cropped).jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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