They were not before the war, they were not during the war, and have not been since the war, in their spirit or in their civilization, a people in common with the people of the North, or the civilized world.
Douglass argues that the South has never shared the same values or civilization as the North or the broader civilized world.
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More from Frederick Douglass
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.