I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery.

It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years.

My back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom.

What difference is there in the color of the soul?

There are few sights more pleasant to the eye, than a wide cotton field when it is in the bloom. It presents an appearance of purity, like an immaculate expanse of light, new-fallen snow.

I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation - only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person.

Is everything right because the law allows it?