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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

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to those who have helped us. Never reluctant or tardy, I trust, in the
discharge of this duty, I have seldom been satisfied with the manner of its
performance. When I have made my best effort in this line, my words have
done small justice to my feelings. And now, in mentioning my obligations
to my special friends, and acknowledging the help I received from them in
the days of my need, I can hope to do no better than give a faint hint of my
sense of the value of their friendship and assistance. I have sometimes been
credited with having been the architect of my own fortune, and have pretty
generally received the title of a "self-made man;" and while I cannot
altogether disclaim this title, when I look back over the facts of my life, and
consider the helpful influences exerted upon me, by friends more
fortunately born and educated than myself. I am compelled to give them at least
an equal measure of credit, with myself, for the success which has attended
my labors in life. The little energy, industry, and perseverance which have
been mine, would hardly have availed me, in the absence of thoughtful
friends, and highly favoring circumstances. Without these, the last forty
years of my lite might have been spent on the wharves of New Bedford,
rolling oil casks, loading ships for whaling voyages, sawing wood, putting
in coal, picking up a job here and there, wherever I could find one, holding
my own with difficulty against gauntsided poverty, in the race for life and
bread. I never see one of my old companions of the lower strata, begrimed
by toil, hard handed, and dust covered, receiving for wages scarcely enough
to keep the "wolf" at a respectful distance from his door and hearthstone,
without a fellow feeling and the thought that I have been separated from
him only by circumstances other than those of my own making. Much to be
thankful for, but little room for boasting here. It was mine to take the "Tide
at its flood." It was my good fortune to get out of slavery at the right time,
and to be speedily brought into contact with that circle of highly cultivated
men and women, banded together for the overthrow of slavery, of which
Wm. Lloyd Garrison was the acknowledged leader. To these friends ,
earnest, courageous, inflexible, ready to own me as a man and brother, against
all the scorn, contempt, and derision of a slavery-polluted atmosphere, I owe
my success in life. The story is simple, and the truth plain. They thought
that I possessed qualities that might be made useful to my race, and through
them I was brought to the notice of the world, and gained a hold upon the
attention of the American people, which I hope remains unbroken to this
day. The list of these friends is too long certainly to be inserted here, but I
cannot forbear to recall in this connection the names of Francis Jackson,
Joseph Southwick, Samuel E. Sewall, Samuel J. May, John Pierpont, Henry