Home / Topics / Slavery Quotes

Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“This war, disguise it as they may, is virtually nothing more or less than perpetual slavery against universal freedoms.”

May War History Universal Slavery Perpetual Disguise American Civil War

Author:Frederick Douglass

“Every man that tried to destroy the Government, every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved our soldiers... every man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for labour performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child - every solitary one was a Democrat.”

“Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.”

Should War Might Causes Party Conflict Slavery Expected Cease Civil War Magnitude American Civil War Duration Inaugural Address American Slavery Causes Of War

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”

Ifs Slavery Slave Presidential Civil War American Civil War Be A Slave American Slavery Slavery In America Emancipation Proclamation Anti Slavery

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.”

Believe Country Ought Slavery Our Country Civil War Sections American Civil War Inaugural Address Slavery In America Us Civil War

Book:Lincoln: Political Writings and Speeches

Source: Lincoln: Political Writings and Speeches

“One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”

War Whole Causes Interest Powerful Slavery Unions Slave Population Civil War Southern Peculiar American Civil War Inaugural Address American Slavery Slavery In America

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery . . . is his natural and normal condition.”

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

“I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”

“We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win, we believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluable, we, or many of us at least, also believed that the conflict was inevitable, and that slavery had lasted long enough. But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred conviction that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every men with a heart must respect those who give all for their belief.”

War Slavery American Civil War

Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“It was no longer a question of the Union as it was, that was to be reestablished; it was the Union as it should be, that is to say, washed clean from its original sin, regenerated on the baptismal font of liberty for all. … Now, we could march with a prouder step, and fight with more confidence. We were no longer merely the soldiers of a political controversy, to be decided by the fate of arms. We were now the missionaries of a great work of redemption, the armed liberators of millions of men bent beneath the brutalizing yoke of slavery. The war was ennobled; the object was higher.”

War United States Slavery Liberation Civil War Patriotism Rebirth American Civil War Emancipation Abolition

Book:Four Years with the Army of the Potomac

Source: Four Years with the Army of the Potomac