That no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother--to
hold or acknowledge him, for one moment, as a piece of
merchandise--to keep back his hire by fraud--or to brutalize
his mind by denying him the means of intellectual, social,
and moral improvement.
The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to
usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to
his own body--to the products of his own labor--to the
protection of law--and to the common advantages of society.
It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject
him to servitude. Surely the sin is as great to enslave an
American as an African.