In all the songs of the slaves, there was ever some expression in praise of the great house farm; something which would flatter the pride of the owner, and, possibly, draw a favorable glance from him.
Douglass observes how slave songs often contained praise for the master's plantation, a subtle act of survival and flattery.
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More from Frederick Douglass
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.
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.
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.