The man, unaccustomed to slaveholding, would be astonished to observe how many foggable offenses there are in the slaveholder’s catalogue of crimes; and how easy it is to commit any one of them, even when the slave least intends it.
Douglass describes the vast and arbitrary list of offenses for which enslaved people could be punished, often without intent.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
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.