16 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2017
    1. These men were generally well dressed men, and very captivating in their manners. Ever ready to drink, to treat, and to gamble.

      Slave traders obtained huge profits at that time. Interstate slave traders received a wage greater than that of an alternative profession in skilled mechanical trades (e.g. regular merchants).

    2. American slave-trade

      Domestic slave trade in the U.S.: due to the explosive increase of cotton cultivation in the Deep South, demand for slave labor had also increased; as a result, millions of slaves were forced to migrate and domestic slave trade had become a major economic activity in the country until the 1860s.

    3. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY.

      Some people are still suffering from cruel slavery, while the others are submerged in merriment from their national celebration - Douglass points out this ironic fact and condemns the falsehood of 'liberty'

    4. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout — “We have Washington to our father.” — Alas! that it should be so; yet so it is.

      Here Douglass is introducing the main topic of his speech, as reflected in the title.

    5. This home government, you know, although a considerable distance from your home, did, in the exercise of its parental prerogatives, impose upon its colonial children, such restraints, burdens and limitations, as, in its mature judgment, it deemed wise, right and proper.

      Do such 'restraints, burdens and limitations' refer to the prejudices American people hold against slaves, etc.?

    1. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

      George III's intention was to continue the war between America and Britain (although opposed by his ministers): "keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse"

    2. Tyrant

      [Oppressive government that employs cruel and unjust use of power and authority] Struggle against tyranny seems to be the theme for most, if not all, revolutionary wars. Does it mean that tyranny to an extreme extent result in rebellion in the name of the people?