Lloyd’s plantation and elsewhere in Maryland, was, that it was “worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent to bury him;” and the facts of my experience go far to justify the practical truth of this strange proverb.
Douglass reflects on the dehumanizing value placed on enslaved lives in Maryland.
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I believed I should get enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I suffered in other respects, and this to a hungry man is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.