“The authorities want to keep the foreigners from wandering around town and spreading ideas of rebellion to slaves.” Old Joe said. “As if a slave who sails the seas with the permission of his master doesn’t have eyes and ears of his own. He’s a man, is he not? He has a tongue to tell stories of what he has seen and heard, does he not? He has a pocket sewn into his jacket. He can carry the printed word from afar, with news of how men and women live elsewhere.”
