Frederick Douglass

To be a SLAVE, was thought to be bad enough; but to be a poor man’s slave, was deemed a disgrace, indeed.

They walk amid desecrated affections, insulted virtue, and blasted hopes.

The reverend slaveholder could always find something of this sort, to justify him in using the lash several times during the week.

Nor did I, when pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was utterly false; for I always measured the kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set up by slaveholders around us.

No matter what were the imperfections of the implement broken, or the natural liabilities for breaking, the slave can be whipped for carelessness.

To allow a slave to escape punishment, who has impudently attempted to exculpate himself from unjust charges, preferred against him by some white person, is to be guilty of great dereliction of duty.

The frequency of this had the effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head.

Then, he is guilty of impudence, one of the greatest crimes in the social catalogue of southern society.

A mere look, word, or motion, a mistake, accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a slave may be whipped at any time.

Is there not room to suspect, that, as the gold watch was presented to atone for the whipping, a purse of gold was given him by the same hand, with which to effect his purchase, as an atonement for the indignity involved in selling his own…

A slaveholder, bent on finding fault, will hatch up a dozen a day, if he chooses to do so, and each one of these shall be of a punishable description.

The man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how many foggable offenses there are in the slaveholder’s catalogue of crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even when the slave least intends it.