There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment.
Douglass highlights the extreme racial disparity in Virginia's legal code, where black men faced the death penalty for far more crimes than white men.
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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.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.