On the recordJanuary 1, 1855
We meant to reach the north—and the north was our Canaan.
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgWe meant to reach the north—and the north was our Canaan.
Douglass explains in his autobiography that for enslaved people, the North represented a promised land of freedom, much like Canaan in the biblical narrative.
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More from Frederick Douglass
Land is not worth much where there are no people to occupy it, and a mule is not worth much where there is no one to drive him.
A son of toil himself, he was linked in brotherly sympathy with the sons of toil in every loyal part of the republic.
Treason had shot its poisonous roots deeper, and had spread its death-dealing branches further than any northern calculation had covered.
I wished it was possible I could remain small all my life, knowing that the sooner I grew large the shorter would be my time to remain with them.