Frederick Douglass

Make a man a slave, and you rob him of moral responsibility.

Slaveholders I hold to be individually and collectively responsible for all the evils which grow out of the horrid relation, and I believe they will be so held at the judgment, in the sight of a just God.

If he steals, he takes his own; if he kills his master, he imitates only the heroes of the revolution.

Slaveholders have made it almost impossible for the slave to commit any crime, known either to the laws of God or to the laws of man.

The morality of free society can have no application to slave society.

It is this: Within the bounds of his just earnings, I hold that the slave is fully justified in helping himself to the gold and silver, and the best apparel of his master, or that of any other slaveholder; and that such taking is not…

As society has marked me out as privileged plunder, on the principle of self-preservation I am justified in plundering in turn.

Society at large has bound itself, in form and in fact, to assist Master Thomas in robbing me of my rightful liberty, and of the just reward of my labor; therefore, whatever rights I have against Master Thomas, I have, equally, against…

I am,” thought I, “not only the slave of Thomas, but I am the slave of society at large.

This had been so when she knew we were nearly half starved; and yet, that mistress, with saintly air, would kneel with her husband, and pray each morning that a merciful God would bless them in basket and in store, and save them, at last…

A great many times have we, poor creatures, been severely pinched with hunger, when meat and bread have been moulding under the lock, while the key was in the pocket of our mistress.

It was not always convenient to steal from master, and the same reason why I might, innocently, steal from him, did not seem to justify me in stealing from others.