On the record
The ignorant whites had every chance to learn, but didn’t; we had every chance to remain ignorant, and many of us learned in spite of them.
Said by
Whitelaw Reid
Source
gutenberg.orgWhitelaw Reid: “The ignorant whites had every chance to learn, but didn’t; we had every chance to remain ignorant, and many of us…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote contrasts the opportunities for learning available to different racial groups, highlighting disparities in motivation and access.
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More from Whitelaw Reid
That would be “jumping from the frying-pan into the fire,” indeed.
With her, then, we should most sedulously cherish a cordial friendship, and nothing would tend more to knit our affections than to be fighting once more, side by side, in the same cause.
Public sentiment was against the sale of lands to the Yankees; “Get white laborers,” they urged, “and in a year you’ll make enough to be able to hold on to your lands.
We are all washed under, and the most of us only live peaceable lives by the sufferance of our Rebel neighbors.