I was now my own master—a tremendous fact—and the rapturous excitement with which I seized the job, may not easily be understood, except by some one with an experience like mine.
Douglass reflects on the immense personal significance of his first paid work as a free man, emphasizing his newfound autonomy.
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Taking all the circumstances into consideration, the colored people have no reason to despair.
It was born in the tempest and whirlwind of war, and has lived in a storm of violence and blood.
Pardon me, therefore, for urging upon you, my people, the importance of saving your earnings; of denying yourselves in the present, that you may have something in the future, of consuming less for yourselves that your children may have a…
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.