Robert Purvis

“To the 'charges' of my being a 'leader of the colored people,' I am proud.”

“We ask for nothing more than our rights as men, as citizens, as Christians.”

“The right of suffrage is the most sacred of all rights.”

“My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.”

“It is the safeguard of the ignorant and the powerless against the encroachments of the intelligent and the powerful.”

“I am a reformer, and in the broadest sense of the term.”

“My feelings are not governed by a vulgar prejudice, like that of the ignorant and unreflecting.”

“I am a man, an American, a citizen, a colored man, and a Philadelphian.”

“The time has come when it is the duty of every colored man to vindicate his manhood.”

“We are determined to be free; and for this determination, we are prepared to shed our blood.”

“There can be no peace, no security, no prosperity for this nation, until the principles of liberty and justice are established.”

“I am one of the oppressed, and I have felt the iron enter my soul.”