On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
This spirit made me a freeman in fact, while I remained a slave in form.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgThis spirit made me a freeman in fact, while I remained a slave in form.
Douglass articulates the distinction between his internal state of liberation and his external legal status, emphasizing the power of the human spirit.
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More from Frederick Douglass
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.