You may remember that during the late war, when the South fought for the perpetuity of slavery, it usually called the slaves “domestic servants,” and slavery a “domestic institution.” Harmless names, indeed, but the things they stood for were far from harmless.
He critiques the euphemistic language used to disguise the harsh realities of slavery.
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More from Frederick Douglass
I believed I should get enough to eat at Covey’s, even if I suffered in other respects, and this to a hungry man is not a prospect to be regarded with indifference.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.