The transition from degradation to respectability was indeed great, and to get from one to the other without carrying some marks of one’s former condition, is truly a difficult matter.
Douglass reflects on the immense difficulty of transitioning from the dehumanizing experience of slavery to a life of respectability without bearing its lasting marks.
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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.
The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.