This was a daring step; if it failed, it would only exasperate Covey, and increase the rigors of my bondage, during the remainder of my term of service under him; but the step was taken, and I must go forward.
Reflecting on a pivotal decision to resist his enslaver, Douglass describes the high stakes and his determination to proceed.
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We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
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.
His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.