“Now, if the Abolitionists are the cause of the war, they are the cause of it only because they sought the abolition of slavery. View it in any way you please, therefore, the rebels are fighting for the existence of slavery; they are fighting for the privilege, the horrid privilege of sundering the dearest ties of human nature; of trafficking in slaves and the souls of men; for the ghastly privilege of scourging women and selling innocent children.”

—  Frederick Douglass

1860s, Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army? (1863)

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Frederick Douglass photo
Frederick Douglass274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895

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