In hands so tender as hers, and in the absence of the cruelties of the plantation, I became, both physically and mentally, much more sensitive to good and ill treatment; and, perhaps, suffered more from a frown from my mistress, than I formerly did from a cuff at the hands of Aunt Katy.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on how a change in his living conditions made him more sensitive to the nuances of mistreatment.
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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.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.