Frederick Douglass: “Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1881

Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass recounts the horrific reality that slave law allowed white fathers to sell their own children if they had any African ancestry.

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Frederick Douglass: “Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed…”