Nor can those from whom they separate, give them up with that cheerfulness with which friends and relations yield each other up, when they feel that it is for the good of the departing one that he is removed from his native place.
In his autobiography, Douglass highlights the profound sorrow of separation for enslaved families, contrasting it with the hopeful goodbyes of free individuals.
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The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
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.