Power Concedes Nothing Without A Demand

This is one of Douglass's most celebrated lines, drawn from the same "West India Emancipation" speech delivered at Canandaigua, New York, on August 3, 1857. It follows a lengthy passage arguing that the history of oppression is a history of passive acceptance — and that every advance in the condition of the enslaved and the oppressed has come through organised struggle and demand. Douglass was speaking directly against those who urged Black Americans to wait for gradual change.