Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
112 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
likely ever to remain the principal inhabitants of
this country. I repeat the statement now, to
submit the reasons that support it. The blacks
can disappear from the face of the country by
three ways. They may be colonized,—they may
be exterminated,—or, they may die out. Colonization
is out of the question, for I know not
what hardships the laws of the land can impose
which can induce the colored citizen to leave his
native soil. He was here in its infancy; he is
here in its age. Two hundred years have passed
over him, his tears and blood have been mixed
with the soil, and his attachment to the place of
his birth is stronger than iron. It is not probable
that he will be exterminated; two considerations
must prevent a crime so stupendous as that—the
influence of Christianity on the one hand, and
the power of self-interest on the other; and, in
regard to their dying out, the statistics of the
country afford no encouragement for such a conjecture.
The history of the negro race proves
them to be wonderfully adapted to all countries,
all climates, and all conditions. Their tenacity
of life, their powers of endurance, their malleable
toughness, would almost imply especial interposition
on their behalf. The ten thousand horrors
of slavery, striking hard upon the sensitive soul,
have bruised, and battered, and stung, but have
not killed. The poor bondman lifts a smiling