On the recordJanuary 1, 1845
The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgThe clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time.
From his autobiography, this passage creates a stark auditory image of the simultaneous existence of religious worship and the brutal reality of slavery.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.