On the record
Look through the southern statute books, and see what Draconian penalties are inflicted for teaching a slave to read,--see how he is lashed for attending a meeting to hear the Word of God.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “Look through the southern statute books, and see what Draconian penalties are inflicted for teaching a slave to…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann highlights the severe penalties imposed on slaves for seeking education, illustrating the oppressive nature of slavery.
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Why, fellow-citizens, the ballot is worse than useless, if it be not FREE!
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.
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
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.
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