- Douglass feels the underground railroad is too publicized. He also feels that although the intent is honorable, the slaves themselves are lost when they attain their freedom. they’re unprepared. He also believed that the publicity that accompanied the underground railroad made the slave owners all the more aware, and that the owner’s awareness was a hindrance to the desired result.
Why does Frederick Douglass criticize the Underground Railroad?
Why does Frederick Douglass not approve of the underground railroad? because he believes, that to many people know of it. and it isn’t underground. if it was, it might be a little safer.
What did Frederick Douglass criticize?
Frederick Douglass criticized slavery in the United States because he was an escaped slave who sought for equality and improved treatment for black slaves.
Why did Frederick Douglass disapprove of the manner in which the Underground Railroad was conducted?
Why did Frederick Douglass disapprove of the manner in which the Underground Railroad was conducted? He thought that there was too much publicity about the Underground Railroad which may hinder future escape efforts because they were enlightening slaveholders of their methods of escape.
Was Frederick Douglass against the Underground Railroad?
Frederick Douglass was very active on the Underground Railroad and was well-connected with other abolitionists across the state. He helped a great deal of fugitive slaves make their way to freedom in Canada. He spoke out about the Jerry Rescue in Syracuse.
Why does Douglass fail to give all the details of his escape?
Why does Frederick fail to give the details of his escape? He wanted to protect other slaves and keep it a secret from slave owners who may possibly read his book. He was considered a rebellious slave, and his death was supposed to be a warning to other slaves.
Why does Douglass not explain how he escaped from slavery?
Douglass’s explanation about why he does not describe the means of his escape elaborates on one of the Narrative’s main themes— the perpetuation of slavery through enforced ignorance. Douglass has said that slave owners keep blacks enslaved by refusing to let them be educated.
What challenges did Frederick Douglass face?
When he turned 16 years old he attempted to escape slavery, sadly the attempt failed, after another 4 years he successfully escaped slavery pretending to be a sailor. Another obstacle that Douglass had to faced was the people that were against him.
How did Frederick Douglass define freedom?
Frederick Douglass View of Freedom Freedom by definition is, “ the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Freedom). As a young slave, Frederick Douglass did not see freedom this way; In fact, he did not see freedom as anything at all.
What was the Missouri Compromise?
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Why does Douglass call the Underground Railroad the Upperground railroad?
“Upperground Railroad” is a term coined by Frederick Douglass in his 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and was designed to criticize those who personally emphasized their work at helping escaped slaves. They stimulate him to greater watchfulness, and enhance his power to capture his slave.
How old was Frederick Douglass when he escaped slavery?
Frederick Douglass was born in slavery to a Black mother and a white father. At age eight the man who owned him sent him to Baltimore, Maryland, to live in the household of Hugh Auld. There Auld’s wife taught Douglass to read. Douglass attempted to escape slavery at age 15 but was discovered before he could do so.
What did Frederick Douglass do?
Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent activist, author and public speaker. He became a leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery, before and during the Civil War.
What happened to the Underground Railroad?
End of the Line The Underground Railroad ceased operations about 1863, during the Civil War. In reality, its work moved aboveground as part of the Union effort against the Confederacy.
What dangers did Harriet Tubman face?
When she was about 12 years old she reportedly refused to help an overseer punish another enslaved person, and she suffered a severe head injury when he threw an iron weight that accidentally struck her; she subsequently suffered seizures throughout her life.
What does Douglass think of the “underground railroad,” and why?
Chapter 11 of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of his Life On May 18, 2017, at 2:15 a.m., Martin G655067 inquired. The most recent edit was made byjill d170087 on 5/18/20172:36 AM.
Answers1
Please Include Yours. Posted byjill d170087 at 2:27 a.m. on May 18, 2017. Douglass believes that the subterranean railroad has received too much attention. He also believes that, despite the noble intentions of the slave owners, the slaves themselves suffer as a result of their liberation. They haven’t planned ahead of time. The publicity surrounding the Underground Railroad, in his opinion, increased the consciousness of slave owners, and this increased awareness was an impediment to the achievement of the ultimate outcome.
I commend those brave men and women for their great deeds, and I admire them for deliberately exposing themselves to violent punishment as a result of their open admission of their involvement in the emancipation of enslaved people.
They make no contribution to illuminating the slave, but they make significant contributions to educating the master.
We owe a debt of gratitude to both slaves south of the line and slaves north of the line, and in assisting the latter on their journey to freedom, we should take care not to do anything that might make it more difficult for the former to escape slavery.
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Summary Douglass manages to flee to the north in this chapter, but he is coy about the means by which he accomplished this achievement. He reveals that his technique of emancipation is still in use by other slaves, and as a result, he does not wish to make it public. Douglass goes on to say that the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists who assisted fugitive slaves in escaping to the North or Canada) should be renamed the “upperground railroad,” and he commends “those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution,” but he is adamantly opposed to anyone disclosing the methods by which slaves were able to fle Apparently, Douglass was in desperate need of money to go away, and so he offered to Hugh Auld that he “lease his time.” For a specific sum every week, Douglass was given the freedom to pursue work on his own terms; anything he earned in excess of the amount he had committed to Auld was his to retain.
- “Rain or shine, work or no job, at the end of each week, the money must be forthcoming, or I will be forced to give up my privilege,” the narrator states.
- For Douglass, this employment scenario entailed not only suffering under slavery, but also experiencing the worry that comes with being a free man (who must fend for him or herself in the job market).
- At some point, he was able to save up enough money to travel to New York City on September 3, 1838.
- In the North, there are a plethora of “man-hunters,” who are willing to return fugitive slaves to their masters in exchange for a monetary reward.
- This is the first time that Douglass describes his wife, Anna Murray (a liberated lady whom he had met in Maryland) and how she came to live with him in New York City with him.
- They were instantly wedded and moved to the city.
- Douglass provides the following explanation: “I granted Mr.
That is something I must hang onto in order to maintain a feeling of my own identity.” Sir Walter Scott’s epic love poem The Lady of the Lake was the inspiration for Johnson’s choice for “Douglass” to take the place of “Bailey.” Surprisingly, in the poem, the name of the exiled lord, James of Douglas, is spelt incorrectly with a singleton.
- Instead, he discovered a cultured and rich society that was devoid of traces of great poverty in the North.
- Douglass was resourceful, and he quickly found employment loading ships and handling a variety of other odd jobs.
- During this period, another watershed moment happened.
- On August 11, 1841, while attending an anti-slavery conference, he delivered his first speech to an assembly of white people, at the request of William Coffin, an abolitionist leader who had invited him to speak.
- Analysis Douglass, now a free man, saw that his initial name was inextricably linked to his identity and decided to keep it.
- In The Lady of the Lake, we follow the narrative of James of Douglas, a fugitive who comes to terms with himself; it is a story that is faintly paralleled by Douglass’ own fugitive existence.
- First and foremost, he asserts, slavery is a robber, and the rewards of slave work are exclusively enjoyed by slaveholders and their families.
Greed is unquestionably one of the primary components of slavery – along with power and authority.
Certainly, a free market in which an individual must fend for himself or herself is a challenging environment to live in, but Douglass would have preferred it over a slave economy any day.
Douglass is far less critical and forthright about racism in the North than he is in the South (at least in this first version of his autobiography).
First and foremost, he was still high on the high of freedom in the North, and whatever prejudice he encountered there would have been insignificant in comparison to what he faced in the South.
For many years, the power of slave hunters in the free states was a sensitive topic of discussion.
Money became an essential key to freedom, a key that was equally important as knowledge, because Douglass need money in order to purchase his journey to New York.
They had better health, were happier, and were more affluent than their counterparts in the Southern United States (South).
Because northern living circumstances were superior and the free market was a more efficient process, the northern hemisphere dominated. Slave labor had been supplanted by machinery. Having witnessed the type of capitalism that exists in the North, Douglass enthusiastically welcomes it.
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Summary As we see in this chapter, Douglass manages to flee to the north without divulging the details of how he did it. Because his technique of escape is still in use by other slaves, he does not want his method to be made public for fear that it would be copied by others. Douglass goes on to say that the underground railroad (an organized system of cooperation among abolitionists who assisted fugitive slaves in escaping to the North or Canada) should be renamed the “upperground railroad,” and he commends “those good men and women for their noble daring, and applauds them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution,” but he is adamantly opposed to anyone disclosing the methods by which slaves were able to escape In order to escape, Douglass claims that he approached Hugh Auld with the idea of “hiring his time.” Having agreed to a fixed sum every week in exchange for the freedom to seek employment, Douglass received the right to keep any earnings in excess of the amount he had promised Auld in exchange for his services.
- “Rain or shine, work or no job, at the end of each week, the money must be forthcoming, or I will be forced to give up my privilege,” says the narrator.
- Despite the fact that Douglass was working under slavery, he was experiencing the fear of being a free person at the same time (who must fend for him or herself in the job market).
- On September 3, 1838, he was able to secure enough funds to travel to New York City on his own.
- “Man-hunters” are abundant in the northern hemisphere, willing to return fugitive slaves to their masters in exchange for a price.
- This is the first occasion that Douglass mentions his wife, Anna Murray (a freed lady whom he had met in Maryland), who had traveled with him to New York City from Maryland.
- They immediately began their honeymoon.
- Douglass provides the following clarification: “I granted Mr.
To maintain a feeling of my own identity, I must hang on to what I have learned.” Instead of “Bailey,” Johnson picked “Douglass,” a character from Sir Walter Scott’s epic romantic poem The Lady of the Lake, to take his place.
For Douglass, the abundance of luxury in the North came as a complete surprise, as he had assumed that Northerners would be forced to live in squalor if they did not have slaves.
In comparison to the inhabitants of Maryland, the people of Virginia appeared to be more able, stronger, healthier, and happier.” The entrepreneurial Douglass quickly found employment loading ships and handling a variety of odd tasks.
During this period, another watershed moment happened.
On August 11, 1841, while attending an anti-slavery conference, he delivered his first speech to a white audience, at the suggestion of William Coffin, an abolitionist leader who had encouraged him to do so.
Analysis Douglass, being a free man, saw that his name was inextricably linked to his identity and decided to keep his given name, Douglass.
There is a runaway hero (James of Douglas) who redeems himself in the novel The Lady of the Lake, a plot that is somewhat similar to Douglass’ own fugitive existence.
The first and most important point, he continues, is that slavery is a robber, and the rewards of slave labor are exclusively enjoyed by slaveholders.
One of the underlying components of slavery is unquestionably avarice — namely, the desire for power and wealth.
Certainly, a free market in which an individual must fend for himself or herself is a challenging environment to live in, but Douglass would have chosen it over a slave economy any day.
Regarding racism in the North, Douglass is far less critical and forthright (at least in this first version of his autobiography).
First and foremost, he was still drunk with freedom in the North, and any prejudice he encountered there would have been insignificant in comparison to what he would have endured in the Southern states.
A difficult topic in the free states for many years was the authority of slave hunters.
Dougie required money in order to travel to New York, therefore money became a crucial key to freedom, one that was equally important as education.
They were healthier, happier, and more affluent than their counterparts in the Southern United States.
Living circumstances in the north were superior, and the free market was just a more efficient process. Labor was no longer provided by slaves, but rather by machinery. As a result of his experiences in the North, Douglass enthusiastically accepts capitalism as a whole.
3. The Upperground Railroad · Underground Atlas of the Genesee · OpenValley
5 Main Street is a location in the city of Chicago. “Underground Railroad Tunnel” is an abbreviation for “Underground Railroad Tunnel.” The Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ is a congregation of the United Church of Christ. Located on the Gideon Archer Homestead. The Howland Stone Store Museum is located in Howland, Maine. The Genesee River is located in New York State. Corinthian Hall is a historic building in Corinth, Scotland. The New York Central Railroad Station is a train station in New York City.
It is the goal of the “Upperground Railroad” map to establish a link between Rochester’s industrial development in the mid-1800s (specifically in the context of railroad lines), the influence of said development on the abolitionist movement in Rochester, the possibility of the Underground Railroad being present in Geneseo’s local history, and the impact of all these factors on the concept of romanticized history.
- The phrase “Upperground Railroad” was developed by Frederick Douglass in his autobiographyNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, and it was intended to critique people who particularly highlighted their efforts in aiding runaway slaves in their labor.
- They make no contribution to illuminating the slave, but they make significant contributions to educating the master.
- We owe a debt of gratitude to both slaves south of the line and slaves north of the line, and in assisting the latter on their journey to freedom, we should take care not to do anything that might make it more difficult for the former to escape slavery.
- I would allow him to think himself surrounded by a swarm of phantom tormentors, all of whom were waiting in the wings, ready to steal his terrified victim from his demonic clutches.
- Do not lend assistance to the tyrant, and do not hold the light that will enable him to track down the footprints of our flying brother.
After that, I’ll get down to the business of laying out the circumstances surrounding my escape, for which I am alone accountable and for which no one else can be made to suffer except myself.” Despite the fact that persons who speak about their labor on the Underground Railroad may have noble intentions, Douglass believes that they are engaging in destructive narcissism.
- Located on Geneseo’s Main Street, a rumored Underground Railroad tunnel exemplifies the irony of historical efforts to romanticize the past in a particularly effective way.
- As they were walking through their front yard, Ingalls and McTarnaghan found what looked to be the mother of all woodchuck holes near Main Street.
- The tunnel runs from what is now the intersection of Rte.
- Geneseo was the commercial hub of Livingston County at the time, and it would have posed a significant threat to individuals seeking to go quietly through the county on their route to Canada.
- I suppose that the tunnel served as a trash disposal tunnel for the firm in question.
- After further investigation, it was discovered that what was once thought to be a historical artifact of the Underground Railroad was in fact a garbage disposal tunnel.
- Several sources have been specially chosen for this exhibit in order to provide an overview of the numerous contributing and, at times, contradictory components that make up this portion of romanticized history, and they are displayed in chronological order.
3. The Upperground Railroad (also known as the Underground Railroad).
The Underground Railroad’s Troubling Allure
The package came one spring evening in 1849, thanks to the overland express service. It was three feet long, two feet wide, and two and a half feet deep. It had been packed the previous morning in Richmond, Virginia, and then transported by horse cart to the local office of the Adams Express Company, which was located in nearby Richmond. When it arrived at the railroad terminal, it was loaded onto a train and then moved to a steamer, where it was placed upside down despite the label stating “THIS SIDE UP WITH CARE.” A fatigued passenger then flipped it over and used it as a seat.
After reaching the nation’s capital, it was put into a wagon, dropped at the railway station, loaded onto a luggage car, and then transported to Philadelphia, where it was emptied onto another wagon before being delivered at 31 North Fifth Street.
Upon opening it, a man named Henry Brown emerged: five feet eight inches tall, two hundred pounds, and, as far as anyone is aware, the first person in United States history to free himself from slavery by “getting myself conveyed as dry goods to a free state,” as he put it later in his autobiography.
Leigh GuldigMcKim, a white abolitionist with the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society who had by then been working for the Underground Railroad for more than a decade, was impressed by the heroism and drama of Brown’s escape, as well as the courage and drama of others like it.
After first appearing in our collective consciousness in the eighteen-forties, the Underground Railroad has become a fixture of both national history and local tradition.
On television, the WGN America network broadcasted the first season of “Underground,” a drama series that chronicles the lives of a group of slaves known as the Macon Seven as they leave a Georgia farm.
A collection of writings about the Underground Railroad was published in 2004 by Yale historian David Blight under the title “Passages to Freedom.” “Bound for Canaan,” written by Fergus Bordewich in the next year, was the first national history of the railroad in more than a century and was published in 1897.
The adult biographies of Harriet Tubman, the railroad’s most famous “conductor,” were published only twice between 1869 and 2002; since then, more than four times as many have been published, along with a growing number of books about her for children and young adults—five in the nineteen-seventies, six in the nineteen-eighties, twenty-one in the nineteen-nineties, and more than thirty since the turn of the century.
- Under addition, an HBO biopic of Tubman is now in preparation, and the United States Treasury confirmed earlier this year that she will be featured on the twenty-dollar note beginning in the next decade.
- Since 1998, the National Park Service has been attempting to establish a Network to Freedom, a nationwide network of Underground Railroad sites that have been officially recognized but are administered by local communities.
- The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park will be the first national monument dedicated to Tubman’s life and accomplishments.
- McKim hoped that by telling these stories, we would be moved to feelings of respect, adoration, and outrage, and he was right.
- No one knows who came up with the phrase.
It originally appeared in print in an abolitionist newspaper in 1839, at the close of a decade in which railways had come to represent wealth and development, and more than three thousand miles of real track had been completed throughout the country, according to the National Railway Historical Society.
- Colson Whitehead’s latest novel takes use of both of these characteristics by doing consciously what practically every young child learning about our country’s history does naively: taking the phrase “Underground Railroad” to its literal meaning.
- Whitehead has a fondness for fanciful infrastructure, which is initially exposed in his outstanding debut novel, “The Intuitionist,” through the use of psychically active elevators.
- In “The Underground Railroad,” he more or less reverses the strategy he used in his previous trick.
- It is an astute decision, since it serves to remind us that no metaphor has ever brought anybody to freedom.
- That set of questions was initially posed in a thorough and methodical manner by a historian at Ohio State University called Wilbur Siebert in the 1930s.
“The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom,” the history that resulted from the investigation, was published in 1898 and depicted a network of more than three thousand anti-slavery activists, the majority of whom were white, who assisted in the transportation of largely anonymous runaways to freedom.
- An abolitionist group working undercover (through tunnels, trapdoors, and hidden passageways) and using covert signals (lanterns placed in windows and quilts hung on laundry lines) to assist enslaved African-Americans in their journey to freedom is depicted in that image.
- Like so many other stories about our nation’s history, that one has a difficult relationship to the truth: it is not exactly incorrect, but it is simplified; it is not quite a myth, but it has been mythologized.
- Furthermore, even the most active abolitionists spent just a small percentage of their time on clandestine adventures involving packing boxes and other such contraptions; instead, they focused on important but mundane chores such as fund-raising, teaching, and legal help, among other things.
- Regarding the belief that travelers on the Underground Railroad communicated with one another through the use of quilts, that thought first surfaced in the 1980s, without any apparent evidence (thenineteen -eighties).
Nobody disputes that white abolitionists were involved in the Underground Railroad, but later scholars argued that Siebert exaggerated both the number of white abolitionists and the importance of their involvement, while downplaying or ignoring the role played by African-Americans in the Underground Railroad.
- However, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in 1816 in direct response to American racism and the institution of slavery, receives little mainstream attention.
- It is not only institutions but also people who are affected by this imbalanced awareness.
- His book about it was published a quarter of a century before Siebert’s, and it was based on detailed notes he kept while helping 639 fugitives on their journey to freedom.
- This distribution of credit is inversely proportionate to the level of danger that white and black anti-slavery advocates were exposed to.
- Some were slain, some perished in prison, and others fled to Canada because they were afraid of being arrested or worse.
These, however, were the exceptions. Most whites were subjected to just penalties and the disapproval of some members of their society, but those who resided in anti-slavery strongholds, as many did, were able to go about their business virtually unhindered.
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
It was a late spring evening in 1849 when the container came by overland express. A three-foot-long, two-foot-wide, and two-and-a-half-foot-deep box, it had been packed the day before in Richmond, Virginia, and then transported by horse cart to the local headquarters of the Adams Express Company. As a result, it was transported to a railroad terminal, put onto a train and, upon reaching the Potomac, transferred to an ocean liner. There, despite the placard reading THIS SIDE UP WITH CARING, it was placed upside down until a fatigued passenger knocked it over and sat down on it.
When the box arrived, it was met by James Miller McKim, the person to whom the package had been addressed.
Storytelling about the Underground Railroad offers the opportunity of moral consolation in the face of a really difficult historical reality.
In an article he wrote some years later, he predicted that future generations of Americans would come to share his feelings: “Now considered unworthy of notice by anyone, except fanatical abolitionists, these acts of sublime heroism, of lofty self-sacrifice, of patient martyrdom, these beautiful Providences, these hair-breadth escapes, and these terrible dangers, will yet become the themes of popular literature in this country, and will excite the admiration, the reverence Fortunately, McKim’s forecast came true quite quickly.
- After first appearing in our collective imagination in the eighteen-forties, the Underground Railroad quickly became a cornerstone of both national history and local tradition.
- WGN America broadcasted the first season of the drama “Underground,” which chronicles the lives of a gang of slaves known as the Macon Seven as they leave a Georgia farm in the early 1900s.
- “Passages to Freedom,” an anthology of writings about the Underground Railroad, was compiled by Yale historian David Blight in 2004.
- The Railroad’s operations in New York City were chronicled in “Gateway to Freedom,” which was released last year by Eric Foner, a Columbia historian.
- Tubman is the subject of a forthcoming HBO biopic, and the United States Treasury announced earlier this year that she will be featured on the twenty-dollar note starting in the next ten years.
- For more than a decade, the National Park Service has worked to establish a Network to Freedom, a nationwide network of Underground Railroad sites that are both officially recognized and locally administered.
- The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park will be dedicated in March of the following year.
Our respect, reverence, and outrage were all expressed by McKim with the expectation that these stories would elicit our response.
It’s unclear who came up with the phrase.
At the conclusion of a decade during which railways had come to symbolize wealth and development and three thousand miles of real track had been constructed throughout the country, it made its first appearance in print in an abolitionist journal in 1839.
Both of these characteristics are exploited by Colson Whitehead in his latest work, which consciously does what nearly every young child studying our history does naively: adopting the phrase “Underground Railroad” literally.
It was the psychically active elevators in Whitehead’s outstanding debut novel, “The Intuitionist,” that first indicated his fondness for magical architecture.
The method that he used before in “The Underground Railroad” is more or less reversed in “The Underground Railroad.” As an alternative to infusing mystique into a mass-produced box, he transforms our most emotive national metaphor into a mechanical device.
The Underground Railroad is one of Whitehead’s primary concerns in this book, and he wants to discover how it truly operated, at what cost, and for whom, among other things.
For more than a decade in the late nineteenth century, when many parents of Civil War dead were still alive to mourn the loss of their children and former slaves still outnumbered freeborn African-Americans, Siebert sought information about their efforts to assist fugitive slaves from slavery from surviving abolitionists or their kinsmen.
- An abolitionist group working undercover (through tunnels, trapdoors, and hidden passageways) and using covert methods (lanterns placed in windows and quilts hung on laundry lines) to assist enslaved African-Americans in their journey to freedom is depicted in that image.
- In that narrative, like in so many others we tell about our country’s history, the truth is in a precarious relationship with the truth: not quite incorrect, but oversimplified; not quite mythical, but overmythologized; in short, not quite true.
- Furthermore, even the most active abolitionists spent just a small portion of their time on clandestine adventures involving packing boxes and other such contraptions; instead, they focused on important but routine chores like as fund-raising, teaching, and legal help, among other things.
- Similarly, the theory that travelers on the Underground Railroad communicated with one another through the use of quilts dates back to the 1980s, and has no apparent foundation (thenineteen -eighties).
No one denies that white abolitionists were involved in the Underground Railroad; nevertheless, following researchers contended that Siebert overstated both the number of white abolitionists and the importance of their involvement, while underplaying or neglecting the role performed by African-Americans.
- However, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in 1816 in direct response to American racism and the institution of slavery, receives little mainstream attention.
- Individuals, as much as institutions, are affected by this unbalanced perception.
- His book on the subject, published a quarter of a century before Siebert’s, was based on detailed notes he kept while assisting 639 fugitives on their journey to freedom.
- When it comes to anti-slavery campaigners, the risk they endured is inversely proportionate to the amount of credit they are given.
- A handful were slain, some died in prison, and others escaped to Canada because they were facing imprisonment or worse.
Those, however, were the outliers. Most whites were subjected to just penalties and the disapproval of some members of their society, whilst those who resided in anti-slavery strongholds, as many did, were able to go about their business with little to no consequence.
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