Frederick Douglass: “They have been abandoned by the Government, and left to the laws of…”

On the record

They have been abandoned by the Government, and left to the laws of nature.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass laments the abandonment of Black citizens by the government, suggesting a failure of state responsibility.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

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

Jan 1, 1881

We are no longer four millions of slaves, but six millions of freemen.

Jan 1, 1881

They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.

Jan 1, 1881

Everywhere in the south the colored man is learning to read.

Frederick Douglass: “They have been abandoned by the Government, and left to the laws of nature.”