In their eagerness, sometimes, to show their contempt for the feeling, they proved that they had not entirely recovered from it; often illustrating the saying, in their conduct, that a man may "stand up so straight as to lean backward." When it was said to me, "Mr.Douglass, I will walk to meeting with you; I am not afraid of a black man," I could not help thinking--seeing nothing very frightful in my appearance--"And why should you be ?" The children at the north had all been educated to believe that if they were bad, the old _black_ man--not the old _devil_--would get them; and it was evidence of some courage, for any so educated to get the better of their fears.
The custom of providing separate cars for the accommodation of colored travelers, was established on nearly all the railroads of New England, a dozen years ago.

Regarding this custom as fostering the spirit of caste, I made it a rule to seat myself in the cars for the accommodation of passengers generally.

Thus seated, I was sure to be called upon to betake myself to the "_Jim Crow car_." Refusing to obey, I was often dragged out of my seat, beaten, and severely bruised, by conductors and brakemen.

Attempting to start from Lynn, one day, for Newburyport, on the Eastern railroad, I went, as my custom was, into one of the best railroad carriages on the road.

The seats were very luxuriant and beautiful.