r the right
and privilege of learning to read and write--feed her coarsely--clothe
her scantily, and whip her on the naked back occasionally; more, and
still more horrible, leave her unprotected--a degraded victim to the
brutal lust of fiendish overseers, who would pollute, blight, and
blast her fair soul--rob her of all dignity--destroy her virtue, and
annihilate in her person all the graces that adorn the character of
virtuous womanhood? I ask, how would you regard me, if such were my
conduct? Oh! the vocabulary of the damned would not afford a word
sufficiently infernal to express your idea of my God-provoking
wickedness. Yet, sir, your treatment of my beloved sisters is in all
essential points precisely like the case I have now supposed. Damning as
would be such a deed on my part, it would be no more so than that which
you have committed against me and my sisters.

I will now bring this letter to a close; you shall hear from me again
unless you let me hear from you. I intend to make use of you as a weapon
with which to assail the system of slavery--as a means of concentrating
public attention on the system, and deepening the horror of trafficking
in the souls and bodies of men. I shall make use of you as a means of
exposing the character of the American church and clergy--and as a means
of bringing this guilty nation, with yourself, to repentance. In doing
this, I entertain no malice toward you personally. There is no roof
under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my
house which you might need for your comfort, which I would not readily
grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege to set you an example as
to how mankind ought to treat each other.

_I am your fellow-man, but not your slave_.

THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,
December 1, 1850

More than twenty years of my life were consumed in a state of slavery.
My childhood was environed by the baneful peculiarities of the slave
system. I grew up to manhood in the presence of this hydra headed
monster--not as a master--not as an idle spectator--not as the guest of
the slaveholder--but as A SLAVE, eating the bread and drinking the cup
of slavery with the most degraded of my brother-bondmen, and sharing
with them all the painful conditions of their wretched lot. In
consideration of these facts, I feel that I have a right to speak, and
to speak _strongly_. Yet, my friends, I feel