Like the fires of the prairie, once lighted, they are at the mercy of every wind, and must burn, till they have consumed all that is combustible within their remorseless grasp.
Douglass uses a powerful metaphor to illustrate the destructive and uncontrollable nature of unchecked passions or systemic evils.
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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.
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.