On the record
For the first time in his life, he breathed an atmosphere congenial to the longings of his spirit, and felt his manhood free and unrestricted.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgFrederick Douglass: “For the first time in his life, he breathed an atmosphere congenial to the longings of his spirit, and felt his manhood…”
Editor's note · Context
Douglass describes the transformative experience of finding a supportive community that nurtures his spirit.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
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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.
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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.