Nothing has been left undone to cripple their intellects, darken their minds, debase their moral nature, obliterate all traces of their relationship to mankind; and yet how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of a most frightful bondage, under which they have been groaning for centuries!
Douglass highlights the systematic efforts to undermine the intellect and humanity of enslaved individuals, yet notes their remarkable endurance.
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More from Frederick Douglass
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
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.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.