In the past,he noted, the national government had tried to divide free states from slave states by a line across a map.

VOA: special.2009.04.23

So the status of slave was lowest, ; freed persons was next highest in Roman Law; and free people were next.

所以罗马律法中，奴隶的地位是最低的，然后是自由人;,接着是自由民。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

Only in the Roman Empire could slavery actually start being a way that you can move up in society, because you could-- if you were a talented slave, your owner might free you, probably would free you.

只有在罗马帝国，奴隶制可以成为,提高社会地位的手段，因为。。。,如果是一个能干的奴隶，主人可能会释放他，很有可能。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

He said it would be best to let the people themselves decide if New Mexico would be a slave or free state.

VOA: special.2009.03.12

Well Pete, you see, there was this free labor system and this slave labor system," blah-blah blah-blah.

皮特你知道,当时北方是自由劳动制,而南方是奴役劳动制",等等,等等

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

Finally,he asked the United States Supreme Court to decide if he was a slave or a free man.

VOA: special.2009.05.14

If slavery is natural, and if nature intends to distinguish the slave from the unfree, the free from the unfree, ? how can nature miss the mark?

如果奴役是自然的演变，而自然倾向于,将奴隶从不自由的人中区别出来，将自由从不自由中区别出来，自然如何会偏离正轨？

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

Lincoln then defended his statement that the United States could not continue half slave and half free.

VOA: special.2009.06.11

The North and the South had roughly, as the Northern and Southern states, the Free states and Slave states, had roughly the same geographic size.

北方和南方大致上,北方和南方的各州有,自由州和蓄奴州的区别,但其地理大小总体上相同

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

A bill was proposed that would free any slave who joined the army to fight.

VOA: special.2009.12.03

So this maintained, even when-- why would a person free a slave?

这一直保留到。。。,为什么主人要释放奴隶？

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

How had the country existed half-slave and half-free for so many years, Lincoln asked.

VOA: special.2009.06.11

But if you're a freedman you're-- the other thing I should tell you is that in Roman law if you're manumitted as a slave, you're made free, if you're manumitted in the normal way they did it, that makes you a Roman citizen, if your owner was a Roman citizen.

但如果你是自由人-,有一点我得解释一下,罗马法律规定，如果奴隶被释放了，如果是正常方法被释放的，他就会成为罗马公民，前提是他的主人是罗马公民。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

Slave-holders in Missouri did not want the Nebraska area to become a free territory.

VOA: special.2009.04.23

In a stunning admission, he says, listen to this, that "while nature may intend to distinguish the free man from the slave," he says, "the opposite often results.

听听这一段，精彩的坦承谈话，他说：，“虽然自然可能倾向于,将自由人从奴隶中区别出来，但常是事与愿违。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

The committee had six members from slave states and six from free states.

VOA: special.2009.04.02

All tended to have a high slave-to-free ratio of population.

人口中奴隶所占的比例 都是非常高的

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

He noted that the country had been half-slave and half-free for seventy years.

VOA: special.2009.06.11

In Democracy in America there's that famous passage, or passages, when Tocqueville crosses the Ohio River, from Ohio into Kentucky, from free soil into slave soil, free state into a slave state.

在托克维尔跨越俄亥俄河,从俄亥俄进入到肯塔基州,从自由之所走向奴役之地的那段游历中,为《美国民主》贡献了数段名言

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

This,he said,would lead to war between the slave-holding and free states.

VOA: special.2009.03.19