Frederick Douglass

Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the slaves.

There is more truth in the saying, that slavery is a greater evil to the master than to the slave, than many, who utter it, suppose.

Among a mass of nonsense and wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given to the meanness of slaveholders.

I hated slavery, slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was presented.

The slave is a subject, subjected by others; the slaveholder is a subject, but he is the author of his own subjection.

Trained from the cradle up, to think and feel that their masters are superior, and invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or rise above the control which that sentiment exercises.

It reveals slavery in its true color, and in its maturity of repulsive hatefulness.

A blow with it, on the hardest back, will gash the flesh, and make the blood start.

More slaves are whipped for oversleeping than for any other fault.

But, there is this difference in the two extremes; viz: that in the case of the slave, the miseries and hardships of his lot are imposed by others, and, in the master’s case, they are imposed by himself.

They are far too scantily provided for, and are worked too steadily, to be much concerned for the quality of their food.

This bread, with its ashes and bran, would disgust and choke a northern man, but it is quite liked by the slaves.