It must be confessed that the most powerful argument now used by the southern slaveholder, and the one most soothing to his conscience, is that derived from the low condition of the free colored people of the north.
Douglass identifies the perceived low condition of free Black people in the North as a primary justification and comfort for Southern slaveholders.
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More from Frederick Douglass
A race which cannot save its earnings, which spends all it makes and goes in debt when it is sick, can never rise in the scale of civilization, no matter under what laws it may chance to be.
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.
Every dollar you lay up, represents one day’s independence, one day of rest and security in the future.
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.