On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
I have often wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, rather than a slave.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgI have often wished myself a beast, or a bird—anything, rather than a slave.
Douglass conveys the depth of his despair and the dehumanizing nature of slavery by wishing to be any creature other than a slave.
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The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.