Posted on 07/06/2021 8:49:32 AM PDT by rebuildus
He was remarkably wise and is worth reading. Examining the context and times he lived in makes his words all the more powerful.
Spot on!
Mr. Evers was a remarkable man. I had the good fortune of meeting several of his family members about five years ago in Nashville. A good friend of mine from Gonzaga married into the family, and we reconnected at the Gonzaga-Tennessee game. The women doted on my grandson, who was six at the time...lol.
Everybody has asked the question. . .”What shall we do with the Negro?” I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!”
Interesting that I'm wearing my Frederick Douglass t-shirt at this moment and I see this headline. Au courant?
Douglas was a great thinker and speaker. He puts a lot of other so-called great men to shame!
I love his speeches and writing
“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too-great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settIed” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final”; not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.”
- Frederick Douglass
Waiting for the “But but but slaves were treated better than factory workers” and/or “some slaves stayed with their previous owners so it can’t have been all that bad” group of ‘Lost Cause’ a-holes to attack the idea that slavery was so horrible.
bump
I agree 100%!
Thanks, Don. It would be much better to be wrong in this case!
Good to hear
Fred vs. the Indians, huh? That would be interesting
Love this guy!
Wow, that IS interesting! Wish I had one of those T-shirts!
You got that right, Smarty!
Wow! Well said!
Some will. They’re always around somewhere.
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