On the record
Man, when forced to substitute the will of another for his own, ceases to be a moral agent; his title to the name of man is extinguished; he becomes a mere machine in the hands of his oppressor.
Source
gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “Man, when forced to substitute the will of another for his own, ceases to be a moral agent; his title to the name of man…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann asserts that slavery dehumanizes individuals, reducing them to mere tools of their oppressors.
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More from Horace Mann
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.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
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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