By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.
In his autobiography, Douglass describes the systemic denial of personal information to enslaved people, comparing their knowledge of age to that of animals.
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Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.