The true reason or explanation of the matter is this: there is the greatest unanimity of opinion among the white population in the south in favor of the policy of keeping the slave in ignorance.
Douglass explains the underlying societal consensus in the South that ensured the enforcement of laws prohibiting slave education.
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It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.
We could not but believe that there existed at the South a latent and powerful Union sentiment which would assert itself at last.