Could someone please explain this quote: "Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even to die free than to live slaves"?

This quote is
from a speech that Douglass gave
in 1863. Basically, what Douglass is saying here is that, if
you want to be
free, you have to make yourself free.  You cannot wait for someone else to do
the
job for you.  This is because it is better to die trying to be free than
to live in
slavery.

This speech was given to try to
motivate blacks to participate in
the Civil War as soldiers.  Douglass was
arguing that they would not deserve their freedom if
they did not fight for
it.  This idea motivated blacks to fight, both in the Civil War and (not

militarily) later on.

This is the spirit that, for example, motivated
the
people who made up the civil rights movement.  They could have waited for
the white people to
decide that it was time to
give blacks their rights.  However, they
did not
do this.  Instead, they rose up and tried to take
the
rights that they deserved.  This is just what Douglass is advocating--if
you want to be free,
you have to make yourself free.