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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: colored travelers were not permitted in the cabin, nor allowed abaft
the paddle-wheels of a steam vessel. They were compelled,
whatever the weather might be,--whether cold or hot, wet or dry,--
to spend the night on deck. Unjust as this regulation was,
it did not trouble us much; we had fared much harder before.
We arrived at Newport the next morning, and soon after an
old fashioned stage-coach, with "New Bedford" in large yellow letters
on its sides, came down to the wharf. I had not money enough to pay our fare,
and stood hesitating what to do. Fortunately for us, there were two
Quaker gentlemen who were about to take passage on the stage,--
Friends William C. Taber and Joseph Ricketson,--who at once discerned
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