Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Garry Wills

Quote by Garry Wills

Work

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Garry Wills
Garry Wills

Garry Wills is an American author born on May 22, 1934. He is known for his profound analysis of history and religion, with works such as 'Jesus: A Pilgrimage'. more

You May Also Like

“Similarly, the nation’s top wealth holders in 1860 had tended to be its major slaveholders. In total, the United States in 1860 had about four million slaves, and on the open market they were worth at least three billion dollars. That was roughly three times the amount of capital invested in manufacturing, three times the amount invested in railroads, seven times the amount invested in banks, and forty-eight times the amount the federal government spent that year. Only the nation’s real estate was more valuable.”

“Critical Race Theory hinges on the dubious assertion that the economic success of the United States is resulted from the free labor provided by the slave population during its founding. This assertion ignores the fact that 94% of all slaves brought to the Americas went to nations south of the border, which, by and large have remained ‘Third World’ economies. Thus, it begs to question: If a slave population is the precursor to economic success, then why did the nations that absorbed 94% of the slave population remain impoverished and underdeveloped economies into the 21st Century? Clearly, slavery did very little to boost their chances at economic stability, much less success.”

“… the English colonies in North America accounted for only a tiny fraction of the hideous traffic in human beings. David Brion Davis, in his magisterial 2006 history Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, concludes that colonial North America ‘surprisingly received only 5 to 6 percent of the African slaves shipped across the Atlantic.’ Hugh Thomas in The Slave Trade calculates the percentage as slightly lower, at 4.4 percent.”

“All I want to do is reunite my family. Free them from bondage. But each time I do, another family is left in pieces. But my brothers would've been sold away if I hadn't come. Forever lost like our sisters. But I've never gone on a mission without the good Lord's consent. This is where I'm supposed to be. It hurts, yes, it does, but the Lord has shown me the way. And it led me back here to my brothers.”

“Leavin' is hard. Nothin' else in Heaven or on Earth would've made me leave Mary and my boys. I got a little girl now, too. She's another Harriet in the family. It's a special name. But nobody wears it better than you. You're a charm from above. Thank you for comin' back for us.”