If any of these three millions find for themselves companions, and prove themselves honest, upright, virtuous persons to each other, yet in these cases—few as I am bound to confess they are—the virtuous live in constant apprehension of being torn asunder by the merciless men-stealers that claim them as their property.
Douglass vividly describes the constant fear and insecurity faced by enslaved individuals who formed relationships, knowing they could be separated at any moment.
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It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.