Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in February 1818 on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland. When he was just a young boy, he was sent to work for a shipbuilder in Baltimore, where he learned to read and write. After escaping to the North in 1838, Douglass became an abolitionist and prominent speaker against slavery. He published his autoquotes compilation, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845, which helped bring awareness to the horrors of slavery. Douglass also fought for women’s suffrage and other civil rights causes. He died in 1895 at the age of 77. His life is an inspiring story of courage and determination that still resonates today.
Here are the deepest Work, Slave, Truth, Free, Nation, Freedom Struggle, Famous, Narrative Life quotes from Frederick Douglass, and much more.
Every one of us should be ashamed to be free while his brother is a slave. — Frederick Douglass
Once you read, you will be free forever. — Frederick Douglass
I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave. — Frederick Douglass
A slave is someone who sits down, and waits for someone to free them. — Frederick Douglass
To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. — Frederick Douglass
The thought of only being a creature of the present and past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak. — Frederick Douglass
Our destiny is largely in our hands. — Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES ON SLAVE
What to the Slave is the 4th of July. — Frederick Douglass
Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out. — Frederick Douglass
We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil–she, as mistress, I, as 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
You have seen how a man was made a slave; You shall see how a slave was made a man. — Frederick Douglass
To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. — Frederick Douglass
Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. — Frederick Douglass
Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. — Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES ON THE NATION
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. — Frederick Douglass
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
What was Frederick Douglass’s childhood like?
Frederick Douglass was born in slavery to a Black mother and a white father.
At age eight the man who owned him sent him to Baltimore, Maryland, to live in the household of Hugh Auld. There Auld’s wife taught Douglass to read. Source
The relation between the white and colored people of this country is the great, paramount, imperative, and all–commanding question for this age and nation to solve. — Frederick Douglass
In a composite nation like ours, as before the law, there should be no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights and a common destiny. — Frederick Douglass
Power concedes nothing without a demand. — Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES ON FREEDOM
Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet. — Frederick Douglass
Redundant Thematics
In Frederick Douglass Statements
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Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude. — 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
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. — Frederick Douglass
The silver trump of freedom roused in my soul eternal wakefulness. — Frederick Douglass
People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. — Frederick Douglass
We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!! — Frederick Douglass
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work. — Frederick Douglass
The man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. — Frederick Douglass
A little learning, indeed, may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning is a calamity to any people. — Frederick Douglass
FREDERICK DOUGLASS QUOTES ON TRUTH
The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance. — Frederick Douglass
Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places. — Frederick Douglass
They suppress the truth rather than take the consequence of telling it, and in so doing prove themselves a part of the human family. — Frederick Douglass
When a great truth once gets abroad in the world, no power on earth can imprison it, or prescribe its limits, or suppress it. It is bound to go on till it becomes the thought of the world. — Frederick Douglass
