Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.”
- Source
- Up from Slavery
- Date
- 1901
Meaning of “I would permit no man, no matter what…”
Washington frames refusal to hate as protection of his own moral agency: another person’s prejudice or wrongdoing should not be allowed to dictate the emotional character of his inner life.
Where does it come from?
Up from Slavery, Chapter XI, “Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them,” Project Gutenberg #2376. Washington says he learned from General Armstrong to reject racial hatred and applies that lesson specifically to hostility and wrongs inflicted on Black Americans; the historical context remains explicit rather than becoming generic advice to ignore mistreatment.
