Frederick Douglass: “Those who would have been most likely to elect me as a delegate, could…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1881

Those who would have been most likely to elect me as a delegate, could not, because they are to-night held in abject slavery in the United States.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

At a temperance convention, Douglass explains why he cannot represent certain groups, linking their absence to the institution of slavery.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.

Jan 1, 1881

Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

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: “Those who would have been most likely to elect me as a delegate, could not, because they are to-night held in abject…”