The slave system owned the minds and bodies of its victims, who loved but had no legal title to their mates, or to the offspring who were born to them any more than did the cattle of the masters own their mates or the young which were born to them.
Grimké discusses the lack of legal rights for slaves regarding family and relationships, likening their situation to that of livestock.
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Perhaps the common people would hearken to what the wise and powerful had rejected.
When he had ceased speaking I said to those around me: 'That is a providential man; he is a prophet; he will shake our nation to its center, but he will shake slavery out of it.
The difference between this motto of the Liberator and that of the Free Press: Our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country--measures the greatness of the revolution which had taken place in the young editor.
It is true many a cheek burns with shame in view of our national inconsistency, and many a heart bleeds for the miserable African.