The consciousness that I was free--no longer a slave--kept me cheerful under this, and many similar proscriptions, which I was destined to meet in New Bedford, and elsewhere on the free soil of Massachusetts.
Douglass explains how the profound realization of his freedom allowed him to endure ongoing racial discrimination in the North.
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More from Frederick Douglass
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.