I found, however, full soon that my enthusiasm had been extravagant, that hardships and dangers were not all over, and that the life now before me had its shadows also, as well as its sunbeams.
Douglass reflects on the sobering realization that the abolitionist struggle was fraught with ongoing difficulties despite his initial enthusiasm.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.