The difficulty in doing justice to the life and character of such a man is not altogether due to the quality of the zeal, or of the ability brought to the work, nor yet to any imperfections in the qualities of the man himself; the state of the moral atmosphere about us has much to do with it.
Douglass reflects on the challenges of accurately representing the life of John Brown due to societal moral conditions.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
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.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.