“It is not uncommon to charge slaves with great treachery toward each other, but I must say I never loved, esteemed, or confided in men more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, and no band of brothers could be more loving.”
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892), Part 1, Chapter 18: New Relations and Duties
1890s, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)
Context: It is not uncommon to charge slaves with great treachery toward each other, but I must say I never loved, esteemed, or confided in men more than I did in these. They were as true as steel, and no band of brothers could be more loving. There were no mean advantages taken of each other, as is sometimes the case where slaves are situated as we were, no tattling, no giving each other bad names to Mr. Freeland, and no elevating one at the expense of the other. We never undertook to do any thing of any importance which was likely to affect each other, without mutual consultation. We were generally a unit, and moved together. Thoughts and sentiments were exchanged between us which might well be called incendiary had they been known by our masters.
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Frederick Douglass 274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895Related quotes
“I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I loved the great sea more and more.”
The Sea, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature (9 March 1832)
1830s
