The second reason was, if possible, still more binding to silence--for publication of details would certainly have put in peril the persons and property of those who assisted.
Douglass details a second crucial reason for his long-held secrecy regarding the specifics of his escape from slavery.
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The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
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.