Frederick Douglass: “If a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in Louisiana…”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1855

If a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck.

Said by

Frederick Douglass

Source

Douglass cites a specific Louisiana law to illustrate the extreme penalties imposed on enslaved people who sought education.

More from Frederick Douglass

Jan 1, 1881

His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.

Jan 1, 1881

I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.

Jan 1, 1881

Guilty or not guilty, to be accused was to be sure of a flogging.

Jan 1, 1881

The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.

Frederick Douglass: “If a mother shall teach her children to read, the law in Louisiana proclaims that she may be hanged by the neck.”