Ostensibly, they are institutions of benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression.
In his autobiography, Douglass exposes the deceptive nature of slave holidays, revealing them as tools of oppression rather than benevolence.
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My grandmother was all the world to me, and the thought of being separated from her was a most unwelcome suggestion to my affections and hopes.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.