Tag Archives: frederick douglas

Slaves Sing Most When They Are Most Unhappy

18 Apr

Conservative blogger and commentator Andrew Bolt posted the following video clip with the uplifting title, “Boston will not be bowed”.

No doubt he – like most of us – feels deeply inspired by this moment. Socially conditioned to, instinctively, interpret it as evidence of the courageous “American spirit” and abiding “patriotism”, shining brightly in adversity –

“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.”

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of The Life Of Frederick Douglass (1845)

frederick-douglass

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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