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Slave Ships Quotes

Browse 17 quotes about Slave Ships.

Slave Ships Quotes

“We’d like a list of what we lost Think of those who landed in the Atlantic The sharkiest of waters Bonnetheads and thrashers Spinners and blacktips We are made of so much water Bodies of water Bodies walking upright on the mud at the bottom The mud they must call nighttime Oh there was some survival Life After life on the Atlantic—this present grief So old we see through it So thick we can touch it And Jesus said of his wound Go on, touch it I don’t have the reach I’m not qualified I can’t swim or walk or handle a hoe I can’t kill a man Or write it down A list of what we lost The history of the wound The history of the wound That somebody bought them That somebody brought them To the shore of Virginia and then Inland Into the land of cliché I’d rather know their faces Their names My love yes you Whether you pray or not If I knew your name I’d ask you to help me Imagine even a single tooth I’d ask you to write that down But there’s not enough ink I’d like to write a list of what we lost. Think of those who landed in the Atlantic, Think of life after life on the Atlantic— Sweet Jesus. A grief so thick I could touch it. And Jesus said of his wound, Go on, touch it. But I don’t have the reach. I’m not qualified. And you? How’s your reach? Are you qualified? Don’t you know the history of the wound? Here is the history of the wound: Somebody brought them. Somebody bought them. Though I know who caught them, sold them, bought them, I’d rather focus on their faces, their names.”

Poetry Poem Slavery African Americans Blacks Slaves Slave Ships Middle Passage

Book:Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Source: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

“Although slavery was not exclusively African, it definitely was widespread on the African continent and, actually, still exists to this day. Most slaves were garnered as military captives, for debt repayment and as criminals. Many were captured in sub-Saharan West Africa and many of their tribes were decimated in brutal raids by ruthless traders who only cared about their own financial profit. In the 17th Century, Arab slave traders raided native villages and sold their hapless catch to Portuguese and Spanish ship owners. They in turn transported their human cargo on converted cargo vessels, though some vessels were especially built for this purpose. It was under these horrid and blistering hot conditions that the captured black African tribesmen were transported to Europe and the Americas.”

Slavery Mma Captain Hank Bracker Slave Ships Naval History

Author:Captain Hank Bracker, The History of Liberia & West Africa

“Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower, on slave ships, whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they came yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago our great challenge for the 21st century is to find a way to be One America. We can meet all the other challenges if we can go forward as One America.”

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1999

“Sacrifice and neon lights, Slaveships don't wait, Love many, trust few, And don't be late...”

Light Waiting Sacrifice Late Slave Ships Neon Slave Ships Neon Lights

Author:Tom Morello

“In his fierce, bold determination to see the lives of modern-day slaves up close, Benjamin Skinner reminds me of the British abolitionist of two hundred years ago, Zachary Macaulay, who once traveled on a slave ship across the Atlantic, taking notes. Skinner goes everywhere, from border crossings to brothels to bargaining sessions with dealers in human beings, to bring us this vivid, searing account of the wide network of human trafficking and servitude which spans today's globe.”

“The Islamic community today is faced with a new version of an old struggle. My late mother used to say it doesn't matter whether you came to this country on the Mayflower or on a slave ship, through Ellis Island or the Rio Grande. We're all in the same boat now.”

Country Matter Today Used Mother Community Struggle Late Slave Versions Ships Boat Islands Islamic Rio Mayflower Ellis Island Slave Ships

Author:Carol Moseley Braun

“The Supreme Court said nothing about silliness, but I suspect it may play more of a role than one might suppose. People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust... Probably the first slave ship, with Negroes lying in chains on its decks, seemed commonsensical to the owners who operated it and to the planters who patronized it. But such a vessel would not be in the realm of common sense today. The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change.”

“People can be slave-ships in shoes.”

People Slave Shoes Ships Slave Ships

Book:Dust tracks on a road

Source: Dust tracks on a road

“And so, whether they came here on the Mayflower, on a slave ship, or on an airplane from Havana, we are all descendants of the men and women who built here the nation that saved the world.”

Men World Nations Men And Women Built Slave Saved Ships Airplane Descendants Havana Mayflower Slave Ships

Author:Marco Rubio

“from the slave ship to the citizenship we faced a lot of bullship”

Slave Ships Citizenship Slave Ships

Author:Amiri Baraka

“His foreparents came to America in immigrant ships. My foreparents came to America in slave ships. But whatever the original ships, we are both in the same boat tonight.”

America Diversity Originals Slave Immigration Ships Boat Tonight Immigrants Slave Ships

Author:Jesse Jackson

“Africans in the United States must remember that the slave ships brought no West Indians, no Caribbeans, no Jamaicans or Trinidadians or Barbadians to this hemisphere. The slave ships brought only African people and most of us took the semblance of nationality from the places where slave ships dropped us off.”

People States Remember United United States Slave West Ships Indian Nationality Caribbean Hemisphere Semblance Jamaicans Slave Ships Trinidadians

Author:John Henrik Clarke

“The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon connected with terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me.”

Source: BREAKING THE CHAINS – The Essential & Powerful Narratives that Shook the Roots of Slavery (17 Books in One Volume): Memoirs of Frederick Douglass, Underground Railroad, 12 Years a Slave, Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Running A Thousand Miles for Freedom and many more

“The success of the abolitionist movement lay in its making real for people in Britain and America the slave ship's pervasive and utterly instrumental terror, which was indeed its defining feature.”

People Real America Movement Empathy Lays Slave Terror Ships Features Britain Defining Abolitionist Slave Ships Britain And America

Book:The Slave Ship: A Human History

Source: The Slave Ship: A Human History

“I be off the slave ships, building pyramids, writing my own hieroglyphs”

Writing My Own Building Slave Ships Pyramids Slave Ships

Author:Kendrick Lamar

“America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”

People Has Beens Country Earth Christian America Black Community Levels Known Millions Grew Salvation Slave Folks Prosperity Ships Black People Best Country Slave Ships

Author:Pat Buchanan

“It's time for Black people to stop playing the separating game of geography, of where the slave ship put us down. We must concentrate on where the slave ship picked us up.”

People Games Black Slave Ships Black People Geography Separating Slave Ships

Author:John Henrik Clarke