Frederick Douglass Quotes
He who would be free must strike the first blow.
Frederick Douglasss, ~1817-1895, Abolitionist & Editor, Recorder of Deeds, District of Columbia, U. S. Minister to Haiti, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855[Douglass did not originate this quote but was one of the most famous Americans to use it. See Lord Byron {77684}.
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Saloth Sar Pol Pot. He was, like Adolf Hitler, one of the most terrible mass murderers in history.
This fear was great among many who were abolitionists as potentially there might be mass slaughter of all Southern whites.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein
She was one of the early abolitionists. Despite the Southern attempted repression of information of slave resistance, some of the facts emerged and were well known in the North. The South tried to suppress these incidents lest other slaves get ideas from it. Also the Southerners often maintained that Africa was so primitive and underdeveloped, that the slaves were better off in America; these actions of rebellion belied this notion.
The point about the negroes who were born into American slavery being less aggressive than those captured and transported to America is often overlooked. Slavery not only was cruel, moral, and inhuman in its own right, but also took its toll over generations as a result of the psychological effects of the terror of slavery. Despite these, it is amazing how resiliant the American Blacks were under those circumstances. in some cases one or two saves escaped after committing a violent act as they had little to lose for trying as they wold be killed if caught. A few of these escaped to the North and others reached Southern Cities like Charleston where there was a small free black community in which they could be absorbed.
Southerners complained that abolitionists were advocating revolution. While most did not, some did advocate mass rebellion. The fact that Remond was himself a Black, created even more distress to the South.
It is not known what actually happened thereafter. However, from the intensity of this letter, it is likely that unless Rice was killed or wounded in battle, he went to get his daughter and deal with her “owner”. An interesting side note is that the slave owner actually sent the letter to the Commanding Union General Rosecrans complaining. The mental set of Southern Slave Owners was incredible to us today, but that is one of the reasons that Reconstruction was so difficult. Southerners could not see anything that they did that was wrong. Unfortunately, there are a few racist people with those views still in America plus many throughout the world.
In 1831 a slave preacher, Nat Turner, led a rebellion in North Carolina killing over 50 white men, women and children. Even though Turner and the rebels were captured and executed, whites throughout the South, took vengeance on any slaves they could find.
The reason for the initial total killing policy was that the slaves had no arms. Their plan was for a small band to attack a plantation, seize the owner’s arms, free his slaves enlarging the “army”, and going on to the next plantation. The reason for the total killing of the whites was to prevent a survivor running to the authorities and mounting a counter attack on the slaves while they still had few guns. The plan was to form an armed slave army and then fight a conventional battle. Ironically, one white who was wounded and spared actually did reach the authorities and Turner’s band was attacked before they had sufficient weapons to put up a serious fight.
See {630997} for the description of the terror policy.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The “colonies” to which we was referring were the French Colonies in the Caribbean—particularly Haiti. The Black slaves had revolted against the slave-owners and had taken over all positions of authority and wore the uniforms and symbols of power including the epaulettes—the gold braid shoulder pieces that were symbols of high rank in military and diplomatic uniforms which were worn on all official occasions. Napoleon never did make good on his vow. He had many more problems with his own wars and governance in Europe. This quote does demonstrate the racism that existed in supposedly tolerant France.
This was part of his presentation to Northern influential business men showing them what he claimed was the New South. He was particularly complimentary about the negro Christian viewpoint that inhibited revenge or retaliation for their terrible treatment. The favorable lines about Negroes were well received by Northerners. However, they were mostly unaware of his racist views he expressed when in the South. See Quotation 643649.
Knight led a band of whites and blacks who fought off the Confederate Troops sent to Jones County of Missisippi, to eleminate the Free State of Jones which tehy had set up, and seceded from the Confederacy. They had infuriated teh Confederate Government becasue it was an interracial community with a great deal of intermarriage and no discrimination agaisnt Blacks and they welcomed runaway slaves and white deserters from the Confederate Army.
This was one of the first calls for a slave strike in America.
At the time of the American Revolution there were strong abolitionist forces working against slaver and the slave trade. Southern American slave-owners, the political leadership of the South, feared that England would force slavery reforms on their colonies. Hence, severance from England eliminated that threat. In retrospect, they were quite right for it was England which outlawed the slave trade and led the worldwide anti-slavery movement which had little effect on the new independent America and the political bias in favor of the south of the American compact caused slavery to survive in America, long after the vast majority of the population would have it ended. It took the Civil War to do it.
- Born: February 14, 1817
- Died: February 20, 1895
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Abolitionist, Suffragist, Author, Editor, Diplomat
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.
