In teaching me the alphabet, in the days of her simplicity and kindness, my mistress had given me the “inch,” and now, no ordinary precaution could prevent me from taking the “ell.
Douglass describes how his initial lessons from his mistress, though later forbidden, ignited an unstoppable desire for further knowledge and freedom.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.