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Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Frederick Douglass, West India Emancipation speech, 1857

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Douglass spoke these words in August 1857 at Canandaigua, New York, marking the day in 1834 when Britain's law abolishing slavery in its Caribbean colonies took effect. In the United States slavery was still legal, and that March the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision had ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens. He added that the limits of tyrants are set by the endurance of those they oppress. Born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, he escaped in 1838 and became the best-known anti-slavery speaker of his time.

Türkçe oku
İktidar, talep edilmedikçe hiçbir şeyden vazgeçmez. Hiç vazgeçmedi, hiçbir zaman da vazgeçmeyecek.
Frederick Douglass, Batı Hint Adaları'nda köleliğin kaldırılışı üzerine konuşma, 1857

Douglass bu sözleri Ağustos 1857'de New York eyaletindeki Canandaigua'da söyledi. Toplantı, Britanya'nın Karayipler'deki sömürgelerinde köleliği kaldıran yasanın 1834'te yürürlüğe girdiği günü anmak için düzenlenmişti. ABD'de ise kölelik hâlâ yasaldı; üstelik aynı yılın mart ayında Yüksek Mahkeme, Dred Scott kararıyla siyahi Amerikalıların vatandaş olamayacağına hükmetmişti. Douglass, zorbaların sınırını ezdikleri insanların dayanma gücünün belirlediğini de söyledi. 1818 dolaylarında Maryland'de köle olarak doğmuş, 1838'de kaçmış ve döneminin en tanınmış kölelik karşıtı hatibi olmuştu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Frederick Douglass
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