in the following letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for such a work:
Rochester, N. Y. July 2, 1855.
Dear Friend : I have long entertained, as you very well
know, a somewhat positive repugnance to writing or speaking
anything for the public, which could, with any degree of
plausibility, make me liable to the imputation of seeking personal notoriety, for its own sake. Entertaining that feeling
very sincerely, and permitting its control, perhaps, quite unreasonably, I have often refused to narrate my personal experience in public anti-slavery meetings, and in sympathizing
circles, when urged to do so by friends, with whose views and
wishes, ordinarily, it were a pleasure to comply. In my letters
and speeches, I have generally aimed to discuss the question of
Slavery in the light of fundamental principles, and upon facts,
notorious and open to all; making, I trust, no more of the fact
of my own former enslavement, than circumstances seemed
absolutely to require. I have never placed my opposition to
slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather
upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature,
every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by
the slave system. I have also felt that it was best for those
having histories worth the writing — or supposed to be so — to
commit such work to hands other than their own. To write
of one's self, in such a manner as not to incur the imputation of
weakness, vanity, and egotism, is a work within the ability of
but few ; and I have little reason to believe that I belong to
that fortunate few.
These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you