On the record
We are often asked with an air of reproach by white men at the North: “Why don’t your people fight their way to the ballot-box?” The question adds insult to injury.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “We are often asked with an air of reproach by white men at the North: “Why don’t your people fight their way to the…”
Editor's note · Context
Douglass critiques the misconception that African Americans should resort to violence to gain voting rights.
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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
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.