Frederick Douglass

If I have pushed my example too prominently for the good taste of my Caucasian readers I beg them to remember that I have written in part for the encouragement of a class whose aspirations need the stimulus of success.

To those who have battled for liberty, brotherhood, and citizenship, I can say I too have battled; and to those who have lived to enjoy the fruits of victory, I can say I too live and rejoice.

To those who have taken some risks and encountered hardships in the flight from bondage, I can say I too have endured and risked.

To those who have suffered in slavery, I can say I too have suffered.

It will be seen in these pages that I have lived several lives in one.

My part has been to tell the story of the slave.

The time is at hand when the last American slave, and the last American slaveholder will disappear behind the curtain which separates the living from the dead, and when neither master nor slave will be left to tell the story of their…

My joys have far exceeded my sorrows, and my friends have brought me far more than my enemies have taken from me.

The most of the space of life is behind me, and the sun of my day is nearing the horizon.

I remarked to him, that no part of the American people would be treated with respect, if systematically ignored by the government, and denied all participation in its honors and emoluments.

Our relation to the American people makes us in some sense a peculiar class, and unless we speak separately, our voice is not heard.

We are here, not merely as American citizens, but as colored American citizens.