Frederick Douglass

Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs and inhumanity of slavery.

The poor slave, on his hard, pine plank, but scantily covered with his thin blanket, sleeps more soundly than the feverish voluptuary who reclines upon his feather bed and downy pillow.

A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in different parts of the south, from such interference.

Woe to the slaveholder when he undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric conductors.

Are the pearly gates of happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors? far from it!

But for these, the rigors of bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the slave would be forced up to dangerous desperation.

These holidays are conductors or safety valves to carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery.

This immense wealth; this gilded splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; this life of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all?

Were slaveholders at once to abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze with…

These holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds of the slaves occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits of slavery.

The self-executing laws of eternal justice follow close on the heels of the evil-doer here, as well as elsewhere; making escape from all its penalties impossible.

To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are deprived.