No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than to live slaves.

The District of Columbia is the one spot where there is no government for the people, of the people and by the people.

I escaped from slavery and became a leading abolitionist and speaker.

Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever... I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustices and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.