Frederick Douglass

But now that slavery was destroyed, and the slave and the master stood upon equal ground, I was not only willing to meet him, but was very glad to do so.

The conditions were favorable for remembrance of all his good deeds, and generous extenuation of all his evil ones.

We had both been flung, by powers that did not ask our consent, upon a mighty current of life, which we could neither resist nor control.

By this current he was a master, and I a slave; but now our lives were verging towards a point where differences disappear, where even the constancy of hate breaks down, where the clouds of pride, passion, and selfishness vanish before the…

But now that the results of the war had changed all this, I had for several years determined to return to my old home upon the first opportunity.

The span of human life is too short for the repetition of events which occur at the distance of fifty years.

A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.

I thanked her with genuine earnestness, and from that moment I could see that her prejudices were more than half gone, and that I was more than half welcome at the fireside of this Democratic Senator.

Great as this woman was in speech, and persuasive as she was in her writings, she was incomparably greater in her presence.

She spoke to the world through every line of her countenance.

Incidents of this character have greatly tended to liberalize my views as to the value of creeds in estimating the character of men.

Reason is imprisoned here and passions run wild.