Frederick Douglass: “I was not only a freeman but a free-working man, and no Master Hugh…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1881

I was not only a freeman but a free-working man, and no Master Hugh stood ready at the end of the week to seize my hard earnings.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass describes the practical realization of his freedom through his ability to keep his own wages, free from a master's claim.

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To make a man a slave was to rob him of moral responsibility.

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The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.

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Frederick Douglass: “I was not only a freeman but a free-working man, and no Master Hugh stood ready at the end of the week to seize my hard…”