Rights quotes

Frederick Douglass, Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, July 5, 1852, reviewed against the public-domain Wikisource transcription of the original oration. 'This Fourth July is yours, not mine' follows Douglass's contrast between the audience's national independence and the exclusion of enslaved Black Americans; it remains abolitionist indictment, not generic patriotism.

Address Accepting Her Diploma From the Sorbonne, University of Paris, December 29, 1925, preserved by Howard University. The row therefore remains formally frozen in HOST_REVIEW rather than receiving an inferred locator.

The Red Record (1895), “A Field for Practical Work,” represented by Project Gutenberg #14977. Wells immediately asks supporters to circulate documented facts and figures about lynching; the record preserves the historical anti-lynching campaign context.

The Federalist No. 51, February 1788. The line sits inside Madison’s argument for checks and balances and institutional controls; it is political theory about constitutional design rather than a factual measurement of human nature.

“To Althea, from Prison,” in Lucasta, Project Gutenberg #703. The poem was written in the context of Lovelace’s imprisonment and expresses Cavalier political and personal loyalty; its claim about freedom is poetic rather than a denial of the real harms of incarceration.

Women and Economics, Chapter VIII, Project Gutenberg #57913. Gilman rejects the contemptuous category of a “female mind,” immediately adding that the brain is not an organ of sex and comparing “female mind” to “female liver.” It is a historical equality argument embedded in Gilman’s period-specific social/evolutionary framework, not a current neuroscience citation.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.

Letter dated April 6, 1859.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening pages; the sentence immediately follows her statement that she contends for the rights of men and liberty of reason.

“Learning to Read” in Sketches of Southern Life, represented by Project Gutenberg #69249. Aunt Chloe speaks in Harper’s first-person poetic persona while recalling enslavers withholding literacy. The dialect, slavery context and constructed poetic voice are retained rather than flattening the couplet into Harper autobiography.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter I, printed page 3, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill places the burden of proof on restrictions and unequal privilege, stating that the a priori presumption is in favour of freedom and impartiality.

Some Reflections Upon Marriage, Appendix in the fourth-edition text represented by Project Gutenberg #61143. The edition states that the preceding edition’s extended Preface was moved to the end as an Appendix; there Astell asks, “If all Men are born Free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?” while challenging claims of natural male supremacy. It is early-modern feminist political-religious polemic, not a literal equation of every form of historical slavery.

On Liberty, Chapter I, Project Gutenberg #34901. This sentence follows Mill’s harm-principle formulation and belongs to a political-philosophical argument about the legitimate limits of social and legal interference. It is not a claim that every private action has no effects or obligations toward other people.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Chapter XLI, “Free At Last,” Project Gutenberg #11030. Jacobs tells the reader that her story ends with freedom rather than marriage, then explains that she and her children are free while her hope for a home of her own remains unrealized. This is autobiographical testimony from the history of U.S. slavery.

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, July 5, 1852. The sentence precedes Douglass’s statement that the blessings of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence are not enjoyed in common under slavery.

“The New Colossus,” written November 2, 1883 for the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund and represented by the U.S. National Park Service. The quoted invitation is spoken by Lazarus’s personified statue within a sonnet about immigration and refuge.

An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chapter XVII, section 1 footnote, reviewed against the represented Liberty Fund text. Bentham's 'Can they suffer?' question appears in his argument that sentience, not species membership or speech, is morally relevant to cruelty; it remains historical utilitarian philosophy rather than current legal doctrine.

Letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, February 11, 1774, published in the Connecticut press and represented by the National Constitution Center. Wheatley’s explicitly religious and natural-rights argument condemns oppression while speaking from the historical context of Atlantic slavery.

“Sympathy,” published in Lyrics of the Hearthside (1899) and represented by Poetry Foundation. The caged-bird image became one of Dunbar’s most influential metaphors for constrained freedom and suffering; the record keeps the poem’s figurative language rather than assigning one exhaustive historical interpretation.

“Lynch Law in America,” Chicago, January 1900, represented by Lit2Go’s historical speech transcription. The quotation preserves Wells’s period racial terminology because it is part of the primary text; its purpose is an anti-lynching demand for due process, not endorsement of historical vocabulary.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, concluding discussion of women as rational citizens and the mutual improvement of both sexes.

“On Being Brought from Africa to America,” in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), represented by Project Gutenberg #409. The poem’s eighteenth-century racial and Christian vocabulary is preserved in historical context; interpretation remains attentive to Wheatley’s position as an enslaved Black poet writing for a colonial audience.

Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. Madison wrote against a proposed Virginia assessment supporting teachers of Christianity. The sentence is historical religious-liberty argument, not current legal advice.

The Farmer Refuted, February 23, 1775, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. Hamilton makes the statement in a revolutionary-era pamphlet defending natural-rights arguments against Samuel Seabury. It is a historical political position and should not be treated as current constitutional or legal advice.

Solitude of Self; Stanton uses an imagined solitary-island example to separate a woman’s individual rights from the incidental roles society may assign her.

“The Status of Woman, Past, Present, and Future,” The Arena, May 1897, pp. 901–908; exact passage independently preserved in the complete Santa Rosa public-library transcription, PDF p. 5. Anthony says legal reforms will not produce complete equality until women help make laws and elect law-makers. The hyphenated “law-makers” wording is retained; this remains historical suffrage advocacy rather than current legal advice.

“Savannah Freedmen’s Orphan Asylum,” an appeal published in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, March 2, 1868, represented by Reconstruction 360’s primary-document transcription. The printed appeal is identified as Harriet Jacobs’s and signed “LINDA JACOBS.” The sentence concerns aged freedpeople, poverty and post-emancipation relief during Reconstruction; it is historical advocacy, not a claim that freedom can be reduced to material comfort.

Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776. The request appears in a private letter discussing independence, law and women’s lack of political voice; the original spelling and capitalization are substantially preserved.

Solitude of Self; this clause occurs inside Stanton’s argument for education, civic voice, economic opportunity, and emancipation from enforced dependence.

The Montessori Method, section “Discipline,” Anne E. George translation. Project Gutenberg #39863. This is historical Montessori pedagogy and should not be presented as a universal modern experimental finding.

Farewell Address, September 19, 1796, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. The sentence appears while Washington urges respect for the Constitution and laws while affirming the people’s right to alter constitutional government. It is a historical republican argument, not present-day legal advice about amendment procedures.

Rights of Man, Part I; represented through Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg collection.

Speech commonly titled “On Women’s Right to Vote,” delivered after Anthony’s arrest for voting in the 1872 presidential election. The statement is constitutional advocacy from the nineteenth-century U.S. woman-suffrage movement, not current legal advice.

Solitude of Self, 1892 congressional address; punctuation follows a widely reproduced transcription of Stanton’s public-domain speech.

The Woman Movement, represented by Project Gutenberg #60840, 1912, translated by Mamah Bouton Borthwick. Key is describing historical women’s-rights demands and changing marriage law in her own period; the passage is not a statement of present-day law.

The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), represented by the CELT / University College Cork transcription. Original-period spelling is retained. Penn is making a seventeenth-century Quaker argument against coercion in religion; the record is historical political-religious thought, not current legal advice.

The Subjection of Women (1869), Chapter II, printed page 78, Project Gutenberg #27083. Mill argues that equality of married persons before the law is required for justice to both sides and for marriage to become a school of moral cultivation rather than legal subordination.

Elizabeth Blackwell letter to Emily Collins (1848), reproduced in History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, Chapter V, validated scan page 91 / scan leaf 103. Blackwell argues that social arrangements must be remodeled if they prevent women's free development; this remains nineteenth-century reform argument rather than a current empirical claim about social policy.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, August 18, 1790, Founders Online. Washington follows this by saying the United States government gives “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The record is historical civic-religious argument, not evidence that the period had already achieved equal liberty in practice.

Speech to the National Woman’s Rights Convention, New York, May 1866, represented by the National Constitution Center historical document. Harper links racial injustice, women’s inequality, civil liberty and shared social responsibility in a Reconstruction-era argument for universal rights.

On Liberty, Chapter I; Mill states the liberty principle before developing its implications for individuality and social authority.

The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, 1831. Prince’s oral account was taken down for publication; the passage explicitly explains why she wanted English readers to know what slavery felt like from an enslaved person’s perspective.

On Liberty, Chapter II, Project Gutenberg #34901. Mill’s next argument is epistemic as well as political: suppressing an opinion can deprive everyone of truth or of the clearer understanding created when truth is tested against error.

The Conservation of Races, Academy Creed, point 6; Project Gutenberg #5685. This is Du Bois’s own programmatic statement. The essay’s broader nineteenth-century racial theory remains historical context and is not presented as current biological science.

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), public-domain text also preserved in The Works of John Locke. Locke immediately distinguishes civil government from religion and argues that persecution should not be disguised as care for souls. His historical position had limits, so this page does not present the letter as a complete modern theory of equal religious freedom.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, “Credo,” originally published in 1920. Project Gutenberg #15210. The sentence continues with freedom of association, movement, thought, dream and work “uncursed by color.”