Frederick Douglass: “If this be parental affection, what is bitter malignity?”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1855

If this be parental affection, what is bitter malignity?

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

From his autobiography, Douglass uses a rhetorical question to expose the twisted definition of parental affection under slavery.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

The day we celebrate is preëminently the colored man’s day.

Jan 1, 1881

Food to the indolent is poison, not sustenance.

Jan 1, 1881

It had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.

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.