On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
When I was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, I was not thinking of my liberty; it was my life.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “When I was looking for the blow about to be inflicted upon my head, I was not thinking of my liberty; it was my life.”
Editor's note · Context
Douglass recounts that under the immediate threat of violence, his thoughts were consumed by survival rather than the pursuit of liberty.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Jan 1, 1881
Some will be more successful than others, and poverty, in many cases, is the result of misfortune rather than of crime; but no race can afford to have all its members the victims of this misfortune, without being considered a worthless…
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
Every dollar you lay up, represents one day’s independence, one day of rest and security in the future.
Jan 1, 1881
Put us in Kansas or in Africa, and until we learn to save more than we spend, we are sure to sink and perish.