Slaves were expected to sing as well as to work. A silent slave was not liked, either by masters or overseers.

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.

The sunlight that has brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.

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

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.

If we would reach a degree of civilization higher and grander than any yet attained, we should welcome to our ample continent all the nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and as fast as they learn our language and comprehend the duties of citizenship, we should incorporate them into the American body politic. The outspread wings of the American eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come.

If I have advocated the cause of the Negro, it is not because I am a Negro, but because I am a man.