His going out into the world, is like a living man going into the tomb, who, with open eyes, sees himself buried out of sight and hearing of wife, children and friends of kindred tie.
In his autobiography, Douglass uses a powerful metaphor to convey the profound and permanent loss experienced by an enslaved person sold away from their family.
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More from Frederick Douglass
None now denies the ability of the colored race to acquire knowledge of anything which can be communicated to the human understanding by letters.
To-day the negro, starting from nothing, pays taxes upon six millions in Georgia, and forty millions in Louisiana.
Nothing but the shot-gun or the bull-dozer’s whip can keep them from voting their convictions.