Frederick Douglass

His going out into the world was like a living man going into the tomb, who with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife, children, and friends of kindred tie.

There was no improvement in condition probable--no correspondence possible--no reunion attainable.

On the other hand, the slave was a fixture; he had no choice, no goal, but was pegged down to one single spot, and must take root there or nowhere.

We were all appalled before that power which, to human seeming, could bless or blast us in a moment.

One word of the appraisers, against all preferences and prayers, could sunder all the ties of friendship and affection, even to separating husbands and wives, parents and children.

Our destiny was to be fixed for life, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the hay-mow.

Horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children-- all holding the same rank in the scale of social existence, and all subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver--the only standard of worth…

Sickness, adversity, and death may interfere with the plans and purposes of all, but the slave had the added danger of changing homes, in the separations unknown to other men.

It furnished me a new insight into the unnatural power to which I was subjected.

No one could tell amongst which pile of chattels I might be flung.

It was not my enslavement at the then present time which most affected me; the being a slave for life was the saddest thought.

Thus assured and thus cheered on under the inspiration of hope, I worked and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the guidance of a wisdom higher than my own.