In substance these reasons were, first, that such publication at any time during the existence of slavery might be used by the master against the slave, and prevent the future escape of any who might adopt the same means that I did.
Douglass explains his primary reason for not disclosing the details of his escape while slavery still existed.
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Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.