The fear of God, and the hope of heaven, are found sufficient to sustain many slave-women, amidst the snares and dangers of their strange lot; but, this side of God and heaven, a slave-woman is at the mercy of the power, caprice and passion of her owner.
In his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the spiritual strength that sustained enslaved women while highlighting their complete earthly vulnerability to their owners.
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It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.