The quotations of

Frederick Douglass

African-American social reformer, writer, and abolitionist

1817–1895

23 quotes, most often on Freedom, Slavery and America.

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, D.C. (22 October 1883).
- Slavery
Where there is seeming contentment with slavery, there is certain treachery to freedom.
The Heroic Slave (1853), Madison Washington
- Freedom
- Slavery
You cannot write the bloody laws of slavery on those restless billows. The ocean, if not the land, is free.
The Heroic Slave (1853), Madison Washington
- Freedom
- Slavery
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)
The negro worked and took his pay in religion and the lash.
Our Composite Nationality (1869)
- Religion
- Slavery
I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter IIIn context
- Music
- Slavery
The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter VIIIn context
- Freedom
- Slavery
I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter XIn context
- Slavery
You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), Chapter XIn context
- Freedom
- Slavery

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