Those who cannot read, can hear; and if you are to keep from them the perpetually recurring sights and sounds which must awaken the quick instincts of liberty, you must extinguish their eyes, and seal up their ears in everlasting silence.
Mann argues that denying education and awareness to enslaved individuals is akin to silencing their instincts for freedom.
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The institution of slavery is against natural right.
Old Virginia was the first to sow this land of ours with slavery; she is also the first to reap the full harvest of destruction.
Out of universal education come genius, skill, and enterprise, and the desire of bettering one’s condition.
Not the most fertile soil, not mines of silver and gold, can make a nation rich, without intelligence.
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