Political Quotes

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
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.
Said by
Frederick Douglass

Editor's note · Context

From his autobiography, this passage describes the legal powerlessness of enslaved people and free blacks in the face of white violence.

Share

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

No word of retaliation when a black man is slain by a rebel in cold blood.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1881

It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1881

Covey succeeded in breaking me--in body, soul, and spirit.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1881

The day we celebrate is preëminently the colored man’s day.

gutenberg.org