They had again and again asked him, he said, what good it did them to make them free, unless they were to own the land on which they had been working, and which they had made productive and valuable.
Reid shares a poignant observation from a black laborer about the meaning of freedom without land ownership, emphasizing the struggle for true autonomy.
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In this way they will surely overcome unjust hostility, and convince even the most prejudiced that the denial to them of any right which citizens may properly exercise is equally unwise and wrong.
And it is both natural and right that colored Americans, entitled to the rights of citizens, should claim their exercise.
It has proved, also, that universal suffrage is the surest guarantee and most powerful stimulus of individual, social and political progress.
May it not prove, moreover, in that work of reorganization, which now engages the thoughts of all patriotic men, that universal suffrage is the best reconciler of the most comprehensive lenity with the most perfect public security and the…