They left the former slave completely in the power of the old master, the loyal citizen in the hands of the disloyal rebel against the government.
Frederick Douglass: “They left the former slave completely in the power of the old master, the loyal citizen in the hands of the disloyal…”
Editor's note · Context
From his autobiography, Douglass criticizes Reconstruction policies for leaving formerly enslaved people vulnerable to their former masters and loyal citizens at the mercy of disloyal rebels.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
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…
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.