Ostensibly, they are institutions of benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression.
In his autobiography, Douglass exposes the deceptive nature of slave holidays, revealing them as tools of oppression rather than benevolence.
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The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.
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.
I believed I should get enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I suffered in other respects, and this to a hungry man is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference.