Frederick Douglass: “These gentlemen are very learned, very eloquent and very able, but I cannot follow them in this effort to restrict…”

The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.

Guilty or not guilty, to be accused was to be sure of a flogging.

It had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.