The grand thing to be done, therefore, was to change this estimation, by disproving his inferiority and demonstrating his capacity for a more exalted civilization than slavery and prejudice had assigned him.
Douglass outlines the overarching goal of his advocacy: to challenge the dehumanizing perceptions of Black people and demonstrate their inherent capacity for progress.
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Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
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.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.