There were colored leaders who followed closely in the footsteps of the white leaders in perverting public trusts to corrupt ends, but the chief malefactors, the biggest scoundrels were members of the white race.
Grimké acknowledges that some African American leaders also engaged in corrupt practices, but he emphasizes the greater culpability of white leaders.
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I am invited to occupy a broader field, and to engage in a higher enterprise; that field embraces the whole country--that enterprise is in behalf of the slave population.
All these requisites were wanting to the man whose sole possession seemed an indomitable will, a faith in himself, and in the righteousness of his cause, which nothing could shake, nor disappointment nor difficulty, however great, was able…
Sirs, I am not come to tell you that slavery is a curse, debasing in its effects, cruel in its operations, fatal in its continuance.
No body of men on the face of the earth deserve their charities, and prayers, and united assistance so much as the slaves of this country; and yet they are almost entirely neglected.