When he drives her from his presence without redress, or the hope of redress, he acts, generally, from motives of policy, rather than from a hardened nature, or from innate brutality.
Douglass argues that a slaveholder's refusal to offer redress to an abused slave is often driven by the practicalities of maintaining the system, not solely by personal cruelty.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.