Every day brings fresh and increasing evidence that we are, and of right ought to be, a nation; that Confederate notions of the nature and powers of our government ought to have perished in the rebellion which they supported; that they are anachronisms and superstitions and no longer fit to be above ground....
From his autobiography, asserting the enduring unity of the nation and condemning Confederate political ideologies, on national identity and the legacy of rebellion.
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More from Frederick Douglass
This was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit, the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.