Frederick Douglass

In this enthusiastic spirit I dropped into the ranks of freedom’s friends and went forth to the battle.

Heaven’s blessing must attend all, and freedom must soon be given to the millions pining under a ruthless bondage.

The cause was good, the men engaged in it were good, the means to attain its triumph, good.

I had already its spirit, and only needed to understand its principles and measures, and as I became acquainted with these my hope for the ultimate freedom of my race increased.

You are the man--the Moses, raised up by God, to deliver his modern Israel from bondage,” was the spontaneous feeling of my heart, as I sat away back in the hall and listened to his mighty words,--mighty in truth,-- mighty in their simple…

His words were full of holy fire, and straight to the point.

He seemed to me an all-sufficient match to every opponent, whether they spoke in the name of the law or the gospel.

It preached human brotherhood; it exposed hypocrisy and wickedness in high places; it denounced oppression, and with all the solemnity of “Thus saith the Lord,” demanded the complete emancipation of my race.

It detested slavery, and made no truce with the traffickers in the bodies and souls of men.

Garrison, and his paper took a place in my heart second only to the Bible.

It was the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and I look back to it now after so many years with some complacency and a little wonder that I could have been so earnest and persevering in any pursuit other than for my daily bread.

Hard work, night and day, over a furnace hot enough to keep the metal running like water, was more favorable to action than thought; yet here I often nailed a newspaper to the post near my bellows, and read while I was performing the up…