Frederick Douglass: “I was insulted, but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1855

I was insulted, but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but with no means of asserting them.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass describes the agonizing paradox of being acutely aware of the principles of justice and liberty while being utterly powerless to claim them.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

To make a man a slave was to rob him of moral responsibility.

Jan 1, 1881

It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.

Jan 1, 1881

It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.

Jan 1, 1881

The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.

Frederick Douglass: “I was insulted, but helpless; keenly alive to the demands of justice and liberty, but with no means of asserting them.”