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THERE
46
Douglass's purpose in this excerpt is to
Read the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass
argue against abolition
o explain his discovery of abolition.
O teach the history of abolition.
O define the word "abolition."
I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery, I was a
ready listener. Every little while, I could hear something
about the abolitionists. It was some time before I found
what the word meant. It was always used in such
connections as to make it an interesting word to me. If a
slave ran away and succeeded in getting clear, or if a
slave killed his master, set fire to a barn, or did any thing
very wrong in the mind of a slaveholder, it was spoken of
as the fruit of abolition. Hearing the word in this
connexion very often, I set about learning what it meant
The dictionary afforded me little or no help. I found it was
"the act of abolishing" but then I did not know what was
to be abolished, Here I was perplexed, discover and abolition