The chance is now given you to end in a day the bondage of centuries, and to rise in one bound from social degradation to the plane of common equality with all other varieties of men.
In an appeal for Black men to enlist in the Union Army, Douglass emphasizes the unprecedented opportunity to end slavery and achieve full equality.
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Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.