Should he accost a colored man in the streets, and ask him if he were a slave, the chances are three to one that the person addressed would turn out to be a freeman; for I suppose the proportion, in this District, of the free colored persons to the slaves to be as great as this.
Horace Mann: “Should he accost a colored man in the streets, and ask him if he were a slave, the chances are three to one that the…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann discusses the challenges of identifying enslaved individuals in Washington, noting the significant number of free Black people in the area.
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