Our destiny was to be fixed for life, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question than the oxen and cows that stood chewing at the hay-mow.
Frederick Douglass: “Our destiny was to be fixed for life, and we had no more voice in the decision of the question than the oxen and cows…”
Editor's note · Context
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the powerlessness of enslaved people during the division of an estate, where their fates were decided without their input.
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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 laws which determine the destinies of individuals and nations are impartial and eternal.
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.
The sentiment that brings us here to-day is one of the noblest that can stir and thrill the human heart.