On the record
Custom blinds conscience, until, without any attempt to emancipate or ameliorate their victims, men can preach and pray and hold slaves, as Hamlet’s grave digger jests and sings while he turns up skulls.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann critiques the hypocrisy of individuals who maintain their moral beliefs while participating in the institution of slavery.
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Yet, by denying education to the slave, you destroy not merely the right, but the power, of personal examination in regard to all that most nearly concerns the soul’s interests.
Even cold, barren New England, though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a faster rate than these old slave states.
Is there not one spot where we can stand side by side, as friends, sympathize with each other, and act together in harmony?
The north comes to the south, cuts their timber, carries it home, manufactures it, and then brings it back, wrought into a hundred different forms, to be sold to those who would see it rot before their eyes.
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