Quotessence
Home / Books / We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

Book by Ta-Nehisi Coates · 2 quotes · Racism, Race, Reparations

Filter quotes by topic

AllRacismRaceReparationsSlaveryAfrican AmericansAmericaBlack HistoryCivil WarGood Negro GovernmentHistoryJusticePovertyRace RelationsWarWhite SupremacyAffirmative ActionAfrican American CultureAfrican American NormsAmerican HistoryAmerican Myths

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy Quotes

“The fear had precedent. Toward the end of the Civil War, having witnessed the effectiveness of the Union's 'colored troops,' a flailing Confederacy began considering an attempt to recruit blacks into its army. But in the nineteenth century, the idea of the soldier was heavily entwined with the notion of masculinity and citizenship. How could an army constituted to defend slavery, with all of its assumptions about black inferiority, turn around and declare that blacks were worthy of being invited into Confederate ranks? As it happened, they could not. 'The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of our revolution,' observed Georgia politician Howell Cobb. 'And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong.' There could be no win for white supremacy here. If blacks proved to be the cowards that 'the whole theory of slavery' painted them as, the battle would be lost. But much worse, should they fight effectively--and prove themselves capable of 'good Negro government'--then the larger war could never be won.”

WarRaceCivil WarWhite SupremacyGeorgiaUs Civil WarConfederacyGood Negro GovernmentTheories Of Race
Book:We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
Create image

“We invoke the words of Jefferson and Lincoln because they say something about our legacy and our traditions. We do this because we recognize our links to the past--at least when they flatter us. But black history does not flatter American democracy; it chastens it. The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter. Black nationalists have always perceived something unmentionable about America that integrationists dare not acknowledge --that white supremacy is not merely the work of hotheaded demagogues, or a matter of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to America that it is difficult to imagine the country without it.”

AmericaRaceHistoryDemocracyRacismAfrican AmericansWhite SupremacyReparations
Book:We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
Create image