'Read anything by Frederick Douglas?

[tfsoccer]

A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.
Frederick Douglass

A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people.
Frederick Douglass

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Frederick Douglass

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.
Frederick Douglass

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.
Frederick Douglass

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.
Frederick Douglass

I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave.
Frederick Douglass

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.
Frederick Douglass

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglass

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
Frederick Douglass

One and God make a majority.
Frederick Douglass

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frederick_douglass.html#ixzz1gnsr6OCJ

[enlightenment]

1. Here's a link to the full text of most of what he wrote.

http://www.online-literature.com/frederick_douglass/

The essays are particularly interesting.

[jumptheshadow]

2. One of the greatest men this country has produced

I was thinking of rereading him during my holiday vacation.

[TuxedoKat]

3. I read his slave narrative

I've forgotten most of it, unfortunately. Since you reminded me of it though, I will reread it.

[RueVoltaire]

4. F. D.'s Narrative is one of the most dog-eared books on my shelf, and the most underlined.

His story made me realize that religion and slavery both depend on ignorance, to keep the people scared and submissive to abusive authority, and that education is freedom. Everyone should read it, at least once.

[tfsoccer]

10. amen!

[Adsos Letter]

5. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

One of my favorites.

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=162

[tfsoccer]

11. thanks, I enjoyed it a lot.

[applegrove]

6. I read his stuff years ago in college. Thanks for posting.

[bhikkhu]

7. An observation on the writing of Douglass by a professor of mine sticks -

he said that one of the most important realizations Douglass had during his life came from watching the changes in the character of his master's wife - the one who first began to teach him to read. She had had no prior experience with slavery and she was kind and bright at first, as truly good-hearted a person as anyone would wish.

He watched as his master's wife gradually adopted the perspectives of the slaveholders, and descended into cruelty and ignorance, destroyed by slavery, essentially. In contrast Douglass observed that while slavery had harmed his own material circumstances regularly and severely, it had not damaged his character or strength of mind one bit. He came eventually, in a way, to feel pity for the white men who thought they had made themselves his lords and superiors, but who had also ruined their own selves in the process.

[tfsoccer]

9. thank you! a great summing up!

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Frederick Douglass

True.