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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass past Frederick Douglass
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Quotes Showing ane-30 of 129

"I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land... I expect upon it every bit the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer instance of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and prove, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where environment me. We accept men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The human who wields the claret-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sun, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer'due south bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in paw together. The slave prison and the church building stand up about each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the aforementioned fourth dimension. The dealers in the bodies of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business organization with the garb of Christianity. Hither we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels' robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"I have observed this in my feel of slavery,--that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it merely increased my desire to be gratuitous, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have establish that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far equally possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to notice no inconsistencies in slavery; he must exist made to feel that slavery is right; and he tin be brought to that but when he ceased to be a human."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Slaves sing near when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave correspond the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an agonized heart is relieved by its tears."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"The more I read, the more than I was led to abominate and hate my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced u.s.a. to slavery. I loathed them as existence the meanest besides every bit the virtually wicked of men. Every bit I read and contemplated the field of study, behold! that very discontentment which Principal Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. Equally I writhed under it, I would at times experience that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. it opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. in moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a animal. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no affair what, to get rid of thinking! Information technology was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silvery trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Liberty now appeared, to disappear no more than forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was always nowadays to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw zippo without seeing information technology, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling information technology. Information technology looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"I affirm most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, - a justifier of the well-nigh appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the about hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and well-nigh infernal deeds of the slaveholders discover the strongest protection. Were I to exist once more reduced to the chains of slavery, side by side to enslavement, I should regard beingness the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have always met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the nearly barbarous and cowardly, of all others."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"I have sometimes idea that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the discipline could exercise.

I did non, when a slave, sympathize the deep meaning of those rude and patently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; and so that I neither saw nor heard equally those without might meet and hear. They told a tale of woe which was and so altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls humid over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony confronting slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes e'er depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I take ofttimes institute myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already institute its fashion down my cheek. To those songs I trace my start glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never go rid of that formulation. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any ane wishes to exist impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-solar day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and at that place allow him, in silence, clarify the sounds that shall laissez passer through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is non thus impressed, it will only exist because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."

I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, equally evidence of their contentment and happiness. Information technology is incommunicable to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are virtually unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, but as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my feel. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to limited my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as accordingly considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, every bit the singing of a slave; the songs of the ane and of the other are prompted by the same emotion."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Be true-blue, be vigilant, be untiring in your efforts to suspension every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may - cost what it may - inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political motto - "NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS"
― William Lloyd Garrison, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"I may exist accounted superstitious, and fifty-fifty egotistical, in regarding this event every bit a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor. Just I should exist false to the earlierst sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the stance. I adopt to exist true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my ain abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I engagement the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not e'er be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living discussion of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom. This proficient spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most roughshod and cowardly, of all others."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. Information technology was very nowadays to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard naught without hearing information technology, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"If at that place is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and even so deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without thunder and lightning. They desire the bounding main without the awful roar of its many waters.This struggle may be a moral ane, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, just it must be a struggle. Power concedes null without need. Information technology never did and it never will... Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they go."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to utilise to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other every bit bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this state. Indeed, I tin see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this state Christianity."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Y'all are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and Thou a slave! You motion merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly earlier the bloody whip! Y'all are freedoms swift winged angels, that fly around the earth; I am bars in the bands of atomic number 26! O that I were free! O, that if I were on i of your gallant decks, under your protecting wing! Alas! Betwixt me and you, the turbid waters scroll. Proceed, proceed. O, that I could likewise go! Could I simply swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a creature! The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, salvage me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God! Why am I a slave? I will run away. I volition non stand. Get caught, or articulate, I'll try it. I had as well dice with ague as the fever. I have merely one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die continuing. Only think of it; 100 miles straight north, and I am free! Effort it? Yep! God is helping me, I will. Information technology cannot exist that I shall alive and die a slave. I will accept to the water. This is very bay shall notwithstanding bear me into liberty. The steamboats steered in the Northeast grade from Northpoint. I will do the aforementioned; and when I go to the head of the bay, I volition turn my canoe adrift, and walked direct through Delaware into Pennsylvania. When I get there, I shall not exist required to take a pass; I tin travel without being disturbed. Let just the first opportunity offer, and, come up what volition, I am off. Meanwhile, I volition try to bear up under the yoke. I am not the merely slave in the world. Why should I be complimentary? I tin can deport as much as whatsoever of them. Likewise I am simply a boy, and all boys are bound to some 1. Information technology may be that my misery and slavery will only increase the happiness when I get costless there is a better solar day coming. [62 – 63]"
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen, all for the glory of God and the skillful of souls. The slave auctioneer's bong and the church-going bell chinkle in with each other, and the biting cries of the middle-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave trade get mitt in hand."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Just I should be false in the primeval sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the stance. I adopt to be true to myself, even at the take a chance of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to exist false, and incur my own abhorrence."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael'due south unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing, and drinking whisky, nosotros were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see the states behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"These love souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to practice so, nor did I teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school, they were liable to be taken up, and given thirty-nine lashes. They came considering they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved past their fell masters. They had been shut upwardly in mental darkness. I taught them, considering it was the delight of my soul to exist doing something that looked like the bettering the condition of my race"
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, (born circa 1818 – Feb 20, 1895) was an American abolitionist, women's suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Chosen "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia", Douglass is one of the almost prominent figures in African-American and United States history. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or contempo immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to practice correct and with nobody to do wrong."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may be as truly said, equally it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, 'They demark heavy burdens, and grievous to exist borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, merely they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost conviction on the results which, he said, would flow from didactics me to read. What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I well-nigh hated. That which to him was a bully evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a swell expert, to exist diligently sought; and the argument which he and so warmly urged, against my learning to read, merely served to inspire me with a desire and a decision to learn. In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly assistance of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"They beloved the pagan on the other side of the world. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors. Such is, very briefly, my view of the organized religion of this country;"
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

"When I was sent of errands, I e'er took my volume with me, and by going ane part of my errand apace, I plant time to get a lesson before my return. I used as well to conduct staff of life with me, enough of which was always in the business firm, and to which I was ever welcome; for I was much amend off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This staff of life I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in render, would give me that more valuable staff of life of knowledge."
― Fredrick Douglas, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"Fortunate, nigh fortunate occurrence!—fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their atrocious thraldom!—fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty!—fortunate for the land of his nascence, which he has already done so much to salve and bless!—fortunate for a large circumvolve of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, every bit beingness bound with them!—fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the field of study of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men!—fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness, "gave the world assurance of a Homo," quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great piece of work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed become gratuitous!"
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"If any one matter in my feel, more than than another, served to deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base of operations ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had served my old master faithfully from youth to old age. She had been the source of all his wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a peachy grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, attended him in babyhood, served him through life, and at his death wiped from his icy brow the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was however left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in the hands of strangers; and in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like then many sheep, without existence gratified with the small privilege of a single word, every bit to their or her own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother,"
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: By Frederick Douglass & Illustrated

"My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, assuming defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in class, the twenty-four hour period had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact."
― Frederick Douglass, Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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