Freeland, irreligious though he was, it must be stated that he was the best master I ever had until I became my own master and assumed for myself, as I had a right to do, the responsibility of my own existence and the exercise of my own powers.
Douglass reflects on his experience with a relatively less cruel master, emphasizing that true freedom only came when he claimed self-ownership and responsibility for his own life.
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It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.