We owe something to the slaves, south of Mason and Dixon’s line, as well as to those north of it; and, in discharging the duty of aiding the latter, on their way to freedom, we should be careful to do nothing which would be likely to hinder the former, in making their escape from slavery.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the moral obligations of abolitionists to both escaping slaves and those still enslaved.
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The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
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.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.