In publishing such accounts, the anti-slavery man addresses the slaveholder, not the slave; he stimulates the former to greater watchfulness, and adds to his facilities for capturing his slave.
From his autobiography, Douglass explains how publicizing escape routes inadvertently aids slaveholders by making them more vigilant and effective at recapture.
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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.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.