Frederick Douglass

Sleep itself does not always come to the relief of the weary in body, and the broken in spirit; especially when past troubles only foreshadow coming disasters.

Public opinion seldom differs very widely from public practice.

There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race.

The charge of laziness against the slave is ever on their lips, and is the standing apology for every species of cruelty and brutality.

When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the…

There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the like…

I say I have no doubt of this; the reason is, that there are not, under the whole heavens, a set of men who cultivate such an intense dread of labor as do the slaveholders.

Not even commerce, selfish and iron-hearted at it is, and ready, as it ever is, to side with the strong against the weak—the rich against the poor—is trusted or permitted within its secluded precincts.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

The word of the slave, against this presumption, is generally treated as impudence, worthy of punishment.