On the record
Measurement in their case should not begin from the height yet to be attained by them, but from the depths whence they have come.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “Measurement in their case should not begin from the height yet to be attained by them, but from the depths whence they…”
Editor's note · Context
Douglass argues for a perspective that acknowledges the historical struggles of the colored people rather than just their current status.
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Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
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We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
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It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.