On the record
The charge is often made that negroes are by nature the criminal class of America; that they furnish a larger proportion of petty thieves than any other class.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “The charge is often made that negroes are by nature the criminal class of America; that they furnish a larger proportion…”
Editor's note · Context
Here, Douglass critiques the stereotype that African Americans are inherently criminal, challenging societal perceptions.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Jan 1, 1881
To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.
Jan 1, 1881
The vote of the colored man, formerly beaten down and stamped out by intimidation, is now revived, sought, and defended by powerful allies, and this from no transient sentiment of the moment, but from the permanent laws controlling the…
Jan 1, 1881
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.
Jan 1, 1881
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.