Frederick Douglass: “But regrets with slaves were unavailing: my wishes were nothing; my happiness was the sport of my master.”

Slavery had no recognition of fathers, as none of families.

Food to the indolent is poison, not sustenance.

If I have had kicks, I have also had kindness.

It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.