Frederick Douglass: “The contrast between the condition of the slaves and that of their masters was marvelously sharp and striking.”

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.

Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.

He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.