It seemed fitting to me to cast in my lot with my brother freedmen, and help to build up an institution which represented their thrift and economy to so striking advantage; for the more millions accumulated there, I thought, the more consideration and respect would be shown to the colored people of the whole country.
Reflecting on his investment in the Freedmen's Bank, Douglass explains his belief that the institution's success would elevate the standing of all African Americans.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.