The general sense of decency that must pervade such a population, does much to check and prevent those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty, and those dark crimes without a name, almost openly perpetrated on the plantation.
From his autobiography, Douglass observes how public decency in urban areas somewhat mitigated the worst cruelties of slavery.
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He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
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