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

VOA: special.2009.05.14

About one-third of Southern white families at one time or another had at least a toehold in slave ownership.

大约三分之一的南方白人家庭,在某一段时期至少都拥有过奴隶

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

But I think it became, in most ways and in most definitions, a slave society surely by the 1820s or the 1830s.

我认为最主流的定义是,奴隶社会确实起源于,十九世纪二三十年代

耶鲁公开课 - 美国内战与重建课程节选

I can't sell myself into slavery any more than I can take somebody else's life or take someone else as a slave by force.

不能将自己变卖为奴隶,我也不能剥夺他人生命，或胁迫他人成为奴隶。

耶鲁公开课 - 公正课程节选