Artifact and Analysis

Document 4
Frederick Douglass in My Bondage and My Freedom

There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being. The manhood of the slave is conceded. . . .

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it.

1855