With a book in my hand so redolent of the principles of liberty, with a perception of my own human nature and the facts of my past and present experience, I was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, whether white or black, for blindness in this matter was not confined to the white people.
From his autobiography, Douglass describes how his understanding of liberty and his own experience equipped him to challenge religious arguments for slavery.
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Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
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.