They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies to war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, exchange information ceaselessly.
The fact is that Douglass was attracted to these democratic-capitalist ideals of his time because they could be used to attack slavery and the doctrine of White supremacy.
Nonintervention pact or not, the fact remains that they were attacked, overrun, thrown into modern slavery at an hour's notice — or even without any notice at all.
This experience left a deep impression on him, and made him determined to do something for convicts and slaves and for all who were oppressed and deprived of their liberty.