The slaveholder, kind or cruel, is a slaveholder still—the every hour violator of the just and inalienable rights of man; and he is, therefore, every hour silently whetting the knife of vengeance for his own throat.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the inherent injustice of slaveholding, regardless of the master's disposition.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.