But I will take it for granted that you know something about the degrading influences of slavery, and that you will not expect great things from me this evening, but simply such facts as I may be able to advance immediately in connection with my own experience of slavery.
Douglass sets the expectation for his audience regarding the nature of his presentation on slavery based on his personal experiences.
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The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.