Wisdom from a giant of the nineteenth-century — Frederick Douglass (circa 1818-1895):
“Everybody has asked the question … ‘What shall we do with the Negro?’ I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature’s plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!”
Click on the image to see it full size, look into Douglass’s eyes, and ask whether he really means it.
See also Frederick Douglass and Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and his letter to his former master.