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.orgThe 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.
Here, Douglass critiques the stereotype that African Americans are inherently criminal, challenging societal perceptions.
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More from Frederick Douglass
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.
This was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit, the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man.
It had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.