Frederick Douglass: “The first step, in the wrong direction, was the violence done to nature and to conscience, in arresting the benevolence…”

We are no longer four millions of slaves, but six millions of freemen.

Everywhere in the south the colored man is learning to read.

None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.

Still another ground of hope I find in the fact that colored men are strong in their gratitude to benefactors, and firm in their political convictions.