Frederick Douglass: “I was living among free men; and was, in all respects, equal to them by nature and by attainments.”

I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.

It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.

It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.

We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.