Were slaveholders at once to abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze with insurrections.
In his autobiography, Douglass argues that the periodic liberties granted to enslaved people prevented widespread rebellion.
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More from Frederick Douglass
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.
The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.