I did not consider myself as uttering that which was strictly untrue, for I always measured the kindness of my master by the standard of kindness set up by the slaveholders around us.
Reflecting on his early life, Douglass explains how he judged his master's character relative to the brutal norms of slavery.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
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 friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
The good to be sought and the evil to be shunned were flung in the balance and weighed against each other.