Is it not a thousand times more probable that it was done by some citizen in the District, or by some colored acquaintance or friend of theirs, enjoying the means of constant communication with them, than that it was done by an entire stranger to them, as the prisoner was?
Mann argues that it is more likely that local citizens influenced the enslaved individuals to escape rather than a stranger, emphasizing the community's role in the pursuit of freedom.
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Men of Massachusetts! moral and religious men! lovers of freedom and of your country, were you prepared for this?
My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.
I answer, that this difference which they so be-little and disparage will often be all the difference between freedom and bondage, between life and death, between honor and infamy, between happiness and perdition.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
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