On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgHe began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.
This passage describes the dawning self-awareness of the freedman after emancipation, emphasizing the need for individual identity.
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By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.