His going out into the world was like a living man going into the tomb, who with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife, children, and friends of kindred tie.
From his autobiography, Douglass uses a powerful metaphor to describe the profound and permanent separation experienced by an enslaved person sold away from their family.
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Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.
For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.