I speak but the simple truth, when I say, I have often been so pinched with hunger, that I have fought with the dog—“Old Nep”—for the smallest crumbs that fell from the kitchen table, and have been glad when I won a single crumb in the combat.
In his autobiography, Douglass recounts the extreme deprivation he faced, illustrating the dehumanizing conditions of slavery.
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We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.
The anti-slavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.