I have seen members of this House to whom I have been disposed to give a friendly caution to keep their “free papers” about their persons, lest suddenly, on the presumption from color, they should be seized and sold for runaway slaves.
Mann warns of the dangers faced by free individuals of color in a society that may not recognize their freedom.
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So far as legal rights against his oppressors are concerned, the slave lives in such a world of darkness.
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.
Has the fact never yet come to the knowledge of the magistrates of the District of Columbia, that the constitution of the United States declares that “excessive bail shall not be required”?
Even cold, barren New England, though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a faster rate than these old slave states.
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