Frederick Douglass: “Nor was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1855

Nor was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, in my case, the result of a clear apprehension of the claims of morality.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass explains that his decision to take food was not impulsive but a considered moral judgment in the context of his enslavement.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

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

Jan 1, 1881

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

Jan 1, 1881

We are no longer four millions of slaves, but six millions of freemen.

Jan 1, 1881

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

Frederick Douglass: “Nor was this practice the mere result of an unreasoning instinct; it was, in my case, the result of a clear apprehension…”