They cannot degrade Fredrick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.
-Fredrick Douglass
Douglass was forced to ride in the baggage car on a trip to Pennsylvania, even though he’d paid the same amount as everyone else. he replied with this statement after some white passengers attempted to console him.
