It is said by “members of Congress” from Vermont, that an alleged fugitive was carried before Judge Harrington of Vermont, in 1807, and on his being asked what evidence would satisfy him that the person was a slave, he replied, “A bill of sale from Almighty God.
Mann quotes a statement about a historical case involving a fugitive slave, highlighting the complexities of legal evidence in such cases.
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This is the reciprocity of slave law.--to be forever liable to be proved guilty, but never able to prove himself innocent; to be subject to all punishments, but, through his own oath, to no protection.
Her black children have sucked her so dry, that now, for a long time past, she has not milk enough for her offspring, either black or white.
It is only in the land of slaves that they are blotted out and annihilated.
Cast it off, West Virginians, whilst yet you have the power; for if you let it descend unbroken to your children, it will have grown to a mountain of misery upon their heads.
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