Frederick Douglass: “How vividly, at that moment, did the brutalizing power of slavery flash before me!”

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 had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.

The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.

The laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.