One word from the appraisers, against all preferences or prayers, was enough to sunder all the ties of friendship and affection, and even to separate husbands and wives, parents and children.
Douglass highlights the absolute power of slave appraisers to arbitrarily destroy family bonds and human connections with a single decision.
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It was born in the tempest and whirlwind of war, and has lived in a storm of violence and blood.
Old and young, sick and well, were turned loose to the open sky, naked to their enemies.
Let us then, wherever we are, whether at the North or at the South, resolutely struggle on in the belief that there is a better day coming, and that we by patience, industry, uprightness, and economy may hasten that better day.