On the recordJanuary 1, 1845
They do not give the slaves this time because they would not like to have their work during its continuance, but because they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgThey do not give the slaves this time because they would not like to have their work during its continuance, but because they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it.
In his autobiography, Douglass explains that slaveholders grant holidays not out of kindness, but from fear of slave rebellion.
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More from Frederick Douglass
But whether it shall come late or come soon will depend mainly upon ourselves.
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.
Let us then, wherever we are, whether at the North or at the South, resolutely struggle on in the belief that there is a better day coming, and that we by patience, industry, uprightness, and economy may hasten that better day.