Quote 1
An American sailor, who was cast away on the shore of Africa, where he was kept in slavery for three years, was, at the expiration of that period, found to be imbruted and stultified--he had lost all reasoning power; and having forgotten his native language, could only utter some savage gibberish between Arabic and English, which nobody could understand, and which even he himself found difficulty in pronouncing. So much for the humanizing influence of THE DOMESTIC INSTITUTION! (preface.7)
Defenders of slavery liked to claim that Africans brought to America were better off, that life in Africa was primitive and savage. In the preface, William Lloyd Garrison tells a story that seems to reflect this kind of thinking, but with a twist. He tells about a white sailor who was enslaved in Africa and who, as a result, lost his ability to speak and became like an animal. Garrison is suggesting that the place or race don't matter; it's the condition of slavery that takes away a person's humanity.
Quote 2
"No Compromise With Slavery! No Union With Slaveholders!" (Preface.13)
William Garrison's preface to Douglass's book ends with this slogan. Though he is trying to stir people up, it's more than just a call to arms. Abolitionists in those days agreed that slavery was a bad thing, but they didn't always agree on what should be done about it. And while Douglass was always interested in the promise of the United States, the land of the free, Garrison was a radical abolitionist who believed that it was better to break away from the United States than share in the sin of slavery. So when he says that there should be "No Union With Slaveholders," he's saying it would be better for the northern states to secede rather than to remain part of a "union" with slave states. Not all abolitionists agreed with this, but Garrison was convinced that it was a sin to compromise with slavery at all.
What Douglass thinks is harder to say; Garrison was his friend and mentor when he wrote the Narrative, but they would have a falling out over the issue in later years. Ironically, it would be the slave states that seceded from the union, which is why Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War, to defend the union – and why the northern troops were called the "Union" army. But in the 1840s, it was the reverse: only radical abolitionists like Garrison talked about secession.
Quote 3
As soon as he had taken his seat, filled with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that PATRICK HENRY, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive. So I believed at that time--such is my belief now. I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North,--even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the Pilgrim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever allow him to be carried back into slavery,--law or no law, constitution or no constitution. (Preface.4)
Garrison is talking about a speech Douglass gave to an audience of abolitionists in the North, some time after he was free. So when he compares Douglass to Patrick Henry, he wants to remind the audience that Douglass didn't just get his freedom, he had to fight for it. (Patrick Henry, remember, is famous for saying "Give me liberty or give me death.")
But there's more to it than that. When he starts talking about "the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North," he wants to remind us that the danger isn't over for Douglass. Even in the North, where he was free, Douglass could still be kidnapped by his former owners and taken back to the South to be a slave again. For Garrison, the fact that Douglass can't be safe even there in Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims landed and the Revolutionary War began, shows that slavery needs to abolished everywhere.