I, however, can see very little good resulting from such a course, either to themselves or the slaves escaping; while, upon the other hand, I see and feel assured that those open declarations are a positive evil to the slaves remaining, who are seeking to escape.
In his autobiography, Douglass argues that openly publicizing aid to escaping enslaved people ultimately harms those still seeking freedom.
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More from Frederick Douglass
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.
It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.