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From the first I saw no chance of bettering the condition of the freedman until he should cease to be merely a freedman and should become a citizen.

Frederick Douglass

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Frederick Douglass
Age: 77 †
Born: 1818
Born: February 14
Died: 1895
Died: February 20
Abolitionist
Autobiographer
Businessperson
Caulker
Diplomat
Editor
Film Editor
Journalist
Orator
Politician
Suffragist
Writer
Talbot County
Maryland
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey
Frederick Augustus Washington Baly
Fred Bailey
Freddie Bailey
First
Condition
Merely
Saws
Citizens
Conditions
Chance
Bettering
Become
Citizen
Firsts
Cease

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The man who will get up will be helped up and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down.
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What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury.
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In life you don't get everything you pay for, but you must pay for everything you get.
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Our destiny is largely in our hands.
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Neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectfully.
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The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.
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Fortune may crowd a man's life with fortunate circumstances and happy opportunities, but they will, as we all know, avail him nothing unless he makes a wise and vigorous use of them.
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A government, founded on impartial liberty, where all have a voice and a vote, irrespective of color or of sex--what is there to hinder such a government from standing firm.
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Money is the measure of morality, and the success or failure of slavery as a money-making system, determines with many whether...it should be maintained or abolished.
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Once you read, you will be free forever.
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I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.
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Civil war was not a mere strife for territory and dominion, but a contest of civilization against barbarism.
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The opposite of compromise is character.
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To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
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This war, disguise it as they may, is virtually nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedoms.
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A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.
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I recognize the Republican Party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety.
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Some know the value of education by having it. I know it's value by not having it.
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Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.
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We are free to say that in respect to political rights, we hold women to be justly entitled to all we claim for men.
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