The Soul That Is Within Me

This line is attributed to Douglass from his speeches and writings on human dignity, and is consistent with the central argument of his autobiographies and oratory: that the essential humanity of enslaved people could not be destroyed by their legal status or the violence of their masters. In his Narrative (1845) and My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Douglass repeatedly asserted that the soul's integrity survived enslavement, and that his oppressors could degrade his circumstances but not his personhood.