I soon, however, found that my enthusiasm had been extravagant; that hardships and dangers were not yet passed; and that the life now before me, had shadows as well as sunbeams.
Douglass recounts his realization that the path of abolitionism was fraught with ongoing difficulties and dangers, tempering his initial idealism.
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Let us then, wherever we are, whether at the North or at the South, resolutely struggle on in the belief that there is a better day coming, and that we by patience, industry, uprightness, and economy may hasten that better day.
It was born in the tempest and whirlwind of war, and has lived in a storm of violence and blood.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.