Jan 1, 1855
They measure and esteem men according to their moral and intellectual worth, and not according to the color of their skin.
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
What a pity there was not some American democratic Christian at the door of his splendid mansion, to bark out at my approach, “They don’t allow niggers in here!” The truth is, the people here know nothing of the republican Negro hate…
Jan 1, 1855
When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, “We don’t allow niggers in here!
Jan 1, 1855
I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people.
Jan 1, 1855
I find no difficulty here in obtaining admission into any place of worship, instruction, or amusement, on equal terms with people as white as any I ever saw in the United States.
Jan 1, 1855
I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult.
Jan 1, 1855
I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity.
Jan 1, 1855
May God give her repentance, before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart.
Jan 1, 1855
She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies.
Jan 1, 1855
If ever I had any patriotism, or any capacity for the feeling, it was whipped out of me long since, by the lash of the American soul-drivers.