On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
These holidays are conductors or safety valves to carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgThese holidays are conductors or safety valves to carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery.
In his autobiography, Douglass uses a metaphor to explain how slave holidays served to prevent rebellion among enslaved people.
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For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.
His iron sentences, cold and harsh, sunk like heavy weights deep into my heart, and stirred up within me a rebellion not soon to be allayed.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.