Frederick Douglass: “Any white man, if he pleased, was authorized to stop a man of color on…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1881

Any white man, if he pleased, was authorized to stop a man of color on any road, and examine and arrest him.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Describing the oppressive legal framework in slave states, Douglass highlights the arbitrary power white individuals held over people of color.

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No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.

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They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.

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To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.

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Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.

Frederick Douglass: “Any white man, if he pleased, was authorized to stop a man of color on any road, and examine and arrest him.”