[alexander_busek]

[...] We went into slavery without a language; we came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. [...]

Booker T. Washington seems here to imply that, before their enslavement, the Africans were mutes. Perhaps he meant "without a common language."

Regards,

[PapaBear3625]

Booker T. Washington seems here to imply that, before their enslavement, the Africans were mutes. Perhaps he meant "without a common language."

or perhaps "historically mute", in that without writing and the press, their words had no permanence or reach.