It did seem that every time the young tendrils of my affection became attached, they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was beginning to look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the emotional pain of separation and the search for spiritual solace under slavery.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
I looked into this kitchen with peculiar interest, and remembered that it was there I last saw my mother.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.