Frederick Douglass: “They looked at slavery as a creature of law; we regarded it as a…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1881

They looked at slavery as a creature of law; we regarded it as a creature of public opinion.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

From his autobiography, Douglass contrasts two major abolitionist strategies for understanding and combating slavery.

More from Frederick Douglass

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

Jan 1, 1881

In any fair condition of things the men who till the soil will become proprietors of the soil.

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

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

Frederick Douglass: “They looked at slavery as a creature of law; we regarded it as a creature of public opinion.”