On the record
Unwavering fidelity to the great principles of human freedom.”--The Declaration of American Independence, in 1776, was the first complete assertion of human rights, on an extensive scale, ever made by mankind.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Mann emphasizes the significance of the Declaration of Independence as a foundational document for human rights.
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Even cold, barren New England, though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a faster rate than these old slave states.
Packed and stowed like merchandise between unventilated decks, so close that the tempest without could not ruffle the pestilential air within, the voyage was begun.
No man of common sense, who has observed this result, can doubt for a moment that the system of free labor promotes the growth and prosperity of states in a much higher degree than the system of slave labor.
They cannot do otherwise with laborers who work by compulsion, for the benefit only of their masters, and whose sole interest in the matter is to do as little and to consume as much as possible.
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