My faculties and powers of body and soul are not my own, but are the property of a fellow mortal, in no sense superior to me, except that he has the physical power to compel me to be owned and controlled by him.
Douglass describes the dehumanizing reality of slavery, where his very being is considered the property of another, whose only superiority is physical force.
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Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.