Horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children-- all holding the same rank in the scale of social existence, and all subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver--the only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to their slaves.
From his autobiography, Douglass recounts the appraisal of slaves, highlighting how they were reduced to property valued only by monetary worth.
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My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.
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.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.