That this denial of rights to us is because of our color, only as color is a badge of condition, is manifest in the fact that no matter how decently dressed or well-behaved a colored man may be, he is denied civil treatment in the ways thus pointed out, unless he comes as a servant.
Douglass highlights the systemic racism that denies civil rights based solely on skin color, regardless of an individual's behavior or appearance.
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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.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.