We represent the class which has enriched our soil with its blood, watered it with its tears, and defended it with its strong arms, but have hitherto been excluded from all part in our national glory.
He highlights the contributions of his community to the nation while lamenting their exclusion from national recognition.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
I believed I should get enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I suffered in other respects, and this to a hungry man is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference.