Until it
shall be safe to leave the lamb in the hold of the lion, the laborer in the
power of the capitalist, the poor in the hands of the rich, it will not be safe
to leave a newly emancipated people completely in the power of their former
masters, especially when such masters have not ceased to be such from
enlightened moral convictions but by irresistible force.
From: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, p.464. ©1892
“What shall I do?” was the question that
Frederick Douglass asked himself after the civil war had put an end to slavery.
He was 48 years old and had escaped from slavery 27 years previous. The first
three of those years he had worked as a labourer, but for the last 24 his profession
was an abolitionist who had put all of his effort into ending slavery. Now that
slavery had come to a sudden end, his goal was achieved, yet the joy of victory
was saddened by uncertainty of his future. However, that uncertainty was short
lived. He had earned a wage of $450 dollars a year as an abolitionist. Now he
was being offered $50, $100, and even $200 for a single speaking engagement.
