“As a people, we feel ourselves to be not only deeply injured, but grossly misunderstand. Our white fellow-countrymen do not know us. They are strangers to our character, ignorant of our capacity, oblivious of or mist and progress, and are misinformed as to the principles and ideas that control and guide us, as a people. The great mass of American citizens estimate us, as being a characterless and purposeless people: And hence we hold up our heads, if at all, against the withering influence of a nation’s scorn and contempt.”
[SOURCE: “Slavery In New York”]
