Be not discouraged. There is a future for you. . . . The resistance encountered now predicates hope. . .

It was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read.

Heaven's blessing must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the pining millions under a ruthless bondage.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

My theory of self-made men is, then, simply this; that they are men of work. Whether or not such men have acquired material, moral or intellectual excellence, honest labor faithfully, steadily and persistently pursued, is the best, if not the only, explanation of their success... All human experience proves over and over again, that any success which comes through meanness, trickery, fraud and dishonour, is but emptiness and will only be a torment to its possessor.

... and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty.

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine.