Frederick Douglass: “He did this to alarm their fears, and strike terror into those who escaped.”

We (the people of the North) are a charitable people, and in the excess of this feeling we were disposed to put the very best construction upon the strange behavior of our southern brethren.

Guilty or not guilty, to be accused was to be sure of a flogging.

Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.

For the moment the northern lamb was transformed into a lion, and his roar was terrible.