Frederick Douglass: “I can only say—believe it or not—that I have said nothing but the literal truth, gainsay it who may.”

That the mother was a slave was enough for its deadly purpose.

The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.

Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.

It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.