The end of all those terrible systems which exploit and rob and oppress them and keep them poor and ignorant and weak, the sad victims of race prejudice and greed and cruelty, would grow nearer to the perfect day of the race's final deliverance as American citizens.
Grimké expresses hope for the eventual end of systems that oppress African Americans, leading to their liberation.
Share
More from Archibald Henry Grimké
He could not hold his peace; his message he was compelled to deliver in the ears of the nation whether its leaders would hear or forbear.
Sirs, I am not come to tell you that slavery is a curse, debasing in its effects, cruel in its operations, fatal in its continuance.
When he had ceased speaking I said to those around me: 'That is a providential man; he is a prophet; he will shake our nation to its center, but he will shake slavery out of it.
The South does not regard the Negro laborer then as undesirable but quite the contrary--only it wants to retain possession of it on its own terms, not on those advantageous to that labor.