On the record
This question, when put in reference to slaves, appears ridiculous; and yet it is no more absurd, when asked in reference to an ignorant slave, than when asked in reference to an uneducated white man.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “This question, when put in reference to slaves, appears ridiculous; and yet it is no more absurd, when asked in…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann argues that the question of capability in relation to education applies equally to both slaves and uneducated white men, challenging societal perceptions.
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More from Horace Mann
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
Better be debarred from the privilege of voting at all, than to be mocked with the form, while cheated of the substance.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
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