Political Quotes

Horace Mann: “A white man may give his testimony against him, but he cannot give his testimony against a white man.”

On the record
A white man may give his testimony against him, but he cannot give his testimony against a white man.
Said by
Horace Mann
Free Soil · Massachusetts

Editor's note · Context

Mann points out the unequal legal standing of slaves in court, illustrating systemic injustice.

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I answer, that this difference which they so be-little and disparage will often be all the difference between freedom and bondage, between life and death, between honor and infamy, between happiness and perdition.

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But such largesses to slavery as kings could not afford to give, and the robbery of an entire race of all its rights,--yes, and with authority, too, to make us help commit the robbery,--these are “factitious and imaginary” causes of…

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