INTRODUCTION.
When a man raises himself from the lowest condition in society
to the highest, mankind pay him the tribute of their admiration;
when he accomplishes this elevation by native energy, guided by
prudence and wisdom, their admiration is increased; but when his
course, onward and upward, excellent in itself, furthermore proves
a possible, what had hitherto been regarded as an impossible, reform,
then he becomes a burning and a shining light, on which the aged
may look with gladness, the young with hope, and the down-trodden, as a representative of what they may themselves become. To
such a man, dear reader, it is my privilege to introduce you.
The life of Frederick Douglass, recorded in the pages which follow, is not merely an example of self-elevation under the most
adverse circumstances; it is, moreover, a noble vindication of the
highest aims of the American anti-slavery movement. The real
object of that movement is not only to disenthrall, it is, also, to bestow upon the negro the exercise of all those rights, from the possession of which he has been so long debarred.
But this full recognition of the colored man to the right, and the
entire admission of the same to the full privileges, political, religious
and social, of manhood, requires powerful effort on the part of the
enthralled, as well as on the part of those who would disenthrall
them. The people at large must feel the conviction, as well as admit the abstract logic, of human equality; the negro, for the first
time in the world's history, brought in full contact with high civilization, must prove his title to all that is demanded for him; in the teeth of unequal chances, he must prove himself equal to the mass
of those who oppress him — therefore, absolutely superior to his apparent fate, and to their relative ability. And it is most cheering
to the friends of freedom, to-day, that evidence of this equality is
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