“ Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under it. ”
Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). copy citation
| Author | Frederick Douglass |
|---|---|
| Source | My Bondage and My Freedom |
| Topic | slavery heat |
| Date | 1855 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/202/202-h/202-h.htm |
Context
“but I am bound, even at the hazard of making a large class of religionists in this country hate me, oppose me, and malign me as they have done—I am bound by the prayers, and tears, and entreaties of three millions of kneeling bondsmen, to have no compromise with men who are in any shape or form connected with the slaveholders of America. I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under it. All the slaveholder asks of me is silence. He does not ask me to go abroad and preach in favor of slavery; he does not ask any one to do that. He would not say that slavery is a good thing, but the best under the circumstances.”
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