A representative could not be prouder of his election to a seat in the American Congress, than a slave on one of the out-farms would be of his election to do errands at the Great House Farm.
In his autobiography, Douglass uses a striking analogy to illustrate the intense desire among slaves to be chosen for errands at the main plantation.
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The nation or people which shall comply with them will rise, and those which violate them will fall, and perhaps will disappear altogether.
No power beneath the sky can make an ignorant, wasteful, and idle people prosperous, or a licentious people happy.
They cannot be coaxed or driven to vote with their enemies against their friends.
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.