Quotes from David W. Blight

Douglass played the prophetic role of the "suffering servant" with zeal. His famous statement about agitation, delivered in a speech in 1857, has stood the test of time and numerous protest ideologies: "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to

In the 1880s, though, Douglass's fame still had to be couched in the racialized claim that he represented "the one, and apparently only one, exception to the general laziness and ignorance of the black population in the midst of which he was born.

in successive elections, Douglass made the memory of emancipation his major preoccupation, pushing his readers to never forget what the war had been about. In the fall of 1870 he warned that Americans were by habit "destitute of political memory.

behind the seen lies the immeasurable unseen.

as Douglass gained literacy, "Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

the forgiver often forgives for his own sake, not to excuse the oppressor. He forgives to strengthen his own heart, to work through grief, pain, loss, and hatred.

Let it be remembered, there is no luxury so exquisite as the exercise of humanity, and no post so honorable as his, who defends the rights of man

making as cadence, pace, variety of tone, and especially gestures of the arms, hands, shoulders, and head. Young Frederick was enthralled, and though he could not yet know it, his life's vocation, his true

that which he most loved i hated; and the very determination which he expressed to keep me in ignorance, only rendered me the more resolute in seeking intelligence

An embittered Douglass declared the United States a tyranny, a nation of corrupted memory, abandoning its victories in favor of power, greed, racial fear, and pride.

Douglass wrote, "Not a Negro Problem, not a race problem, but a national problem; whether the American people will ultimately administer equal justice to all the varieties of the human race in this Republic.

No one should believe those who surround "the ballot box with obstacles and sinuosities . . . intended to . . . defeat . . . the elective franchise.

too many in the mobs "have eyes, but see not, ears but hear not, and they rush to their work of death as pitilessly as the tiger rushes upon his prey."11 The beast in the dark recesses of the human psyche was in the mob, not in the victim of ritual violence.

Republican Ebon C. Ingersoll of Illinois, however

Our government may at some time be in the hands of a bad man. When in the hands of a good man it is all well enough. . . . We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man we shall be safe."24

Douglass's later, prolific appeals to the natural-rights tradition, and even to the right of revolution, should be first considered in light of these compelling, damaging childhood memories of such cruelty.

Mr. Obama has always been at heart a healer, a reconciler eager to find common ground with people who hated him for ideological, political and racial reasons. It is a primary reason for his political success and status today as the most admired political figure in our culture.

feminist Abby Kelley to the executive committee by a tally of 557 to 451.

Whenever Douglass made arguments against slavery from the natural-rights tradition

Education and Slavery were incompatible with each other. —FREDERICK DOUGLASS, 1845

Too many whites, he said, were "haunted with the idea, that to invest the colored race with equal rights is dangerous to the rights of white men." Such a "mischievous heresy" had for far too long paralyzed history.

We have but one weapon unimpaired and that is the weapon of speech, and not to use it . . . is treason to the oppressed.

Here it was again: colonization theory, gilded by the image of Jefferson, determined by God, driven by white supremacy while claiming otherwise, and callously argued by a member of Lincoln's cabinet.

Douglass insisted on remembrance before any action: "Perhaps there is too much past. But remember that all the present rests on all the past. Remember is as good a word as forget.