Horses and men—cattle and women—pigs and children—all holding the same rank in the scale of social existence; and all subjected to the same narrow inspection, to ascertain their value in gold and silver—the only standard of worth applied by slaveholders to slaves!
Douglass condemns the slave system for reducing human beings to the level of animals, valued solely by their monetary worth to slaveholders.
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More from Frederick Douglass
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.
It was perhaps better for the country and for mankind that the good man could not know the end from the beginning.
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.
He was called upon not merely to administer the government, but to decide, in the face of terrible odds, the fate of the Republic.