He could issue no warrant on my word, against white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a thousand blacks, their testimony, combined would have been insufficient to arrest a single murderer.
Frederick Douglass: “He could issue no warrant on my word, against white persons; and, if I had been killed in the presence of a thousand…”
On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
From his autobiography, this passage describes the legal powerlessness of enslaved people and free blacks in the face of white violence.
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