As I have said of the overseer of the home plantation, so I may say of the overseers on the smaller ones; they stand between the slave and all civil constitutions—their word is law, and is implicitly obeyed.
Douglass describes the absolute authority of overseers on slave plantations, highlighting their unchecked power over enslaved individuals.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
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.
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.