Women—white women, I mean—are IDOLS at the south, not WIVES, for the slave women are preferred in many instances; and if these idols but nod, or lift a finger, woe to the poor victim: kicks, cuffs and stripes are sure to follow.
Douglass critiques the elevated, almost worshipped status of white women in the South, which he argues enabled their unchecked cruelty towards enslaved people.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.