Jan 1, 1855
We want to live in the land of our birth, and to lay our bones by the side of our fathers; and nothing short of an intense love of personal freedom keeps us from the south.
Frederick Douglass
The Public Record
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was "the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century".
gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1855
In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an honest living.
Jan 1, 1855
We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual existence.
Jan 1, 1855
Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours.
Jan 1, 1855
The morality of the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons.
Jan 1, 1855
I was not satisfied with this theory, which made God responsible for slavery, for it pained me greatly, and I have wept over it long and often.
Jan 1, 1855
When I saw the slave-driver whip a slave-woman, cut the blood out of her neck, and heard her piteous cries, I went away into the corner of the fence, wept and pondered over the mystery.
Jan 1, 1855
The very first mental effort that I now remember on my part, was an attempt to solve the mystery—why am I a slave? and with this question my youthful mind was troubled for many days, pressing upon me more heavily at times than others.