If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.
Douglass challenges the scriptural justification for slavery by pointing out the widespread reality of mixed-race children fathered by white masters, rendering the "curse of Ham" argument moot.
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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.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.