Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

The Constitution of the United States knows no distinction between citizens on account of color. Neither does it know any difference between a citizen of a state and a citizen of the United States.

The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress....This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.