Albeit, the lash of proscription, to a man accustomed to equal social position, even for a time, as I was, has a sting for the soul hardly less severe than that which bites the flesh and draws the blood from the back of the plantation slave.
From his autobiography, Douglass reflects on the profound psychological pain of social proscription and discrimination, comparing it to the physical suffering of enslaved people.
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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.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.