Answer:
"Nature has done almost nothing to prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders"
Explanation:
This Douglass's work is a very special one in being probably the first to consider, both slaves and slaveholders, the victims of a slaveholding system.
He constantly remainds us on what is natural, and that being forced by the system to work against one's nature renders them victims of such a brutal system
He also emphasizes the children's view on this. Children, the purest beings among humans, don't understand the reason for slavery, the reason for one human being to take another's freedom away. The children's point of view is natural, but the system will change this and teach them to become slaves.
Throughout this excerpt, he gives many evidences for his idea of what's natural:
- "...and it is as hard to cease to respect that natural love in our fellow creatures".
- "...nature, which fits nobody for such an office..."
- "...without a mighty struggle with all the noble powers of her own soul"
- "Nothing but rigid training, long persisted in, can perfect the character of the one or the other".
But, probably the most obvious and the best fitting example is "Nature has done almost nothing to prepare men and women to be either slaves or slaveholders".
