"I assert most unhesitatingly,that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds--and a dark shelter under,which the darkest,foulest,grossest,and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest of protection. Were I too be again reduced to the chains of slavery,next to enslavement,I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall onto me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met,religious slaveholders are the worst and most cruel. I have ever found them the meanest and basest,the most cruel and cowardly, of all others." (chapter 10 page 19)Truth: Douglass got in some trouble for attacking the hypocrisy of Christians in the South,but he never once backed away from that attack. Since his friends in the abolitionist movement were also Christians some of them thought he was attacking them instead of just the religious impostors. This passage tries to clarify this issue and is explaining that his harsh criticism was not of all religion, but only for slave owners who pretended to be Christians and since it was impossible to be a true Christian and also own slaves. (In fact,he wrote the entire appendix just to explain that he was against hypocrites,not just the religion itself.)
