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Slavery Quotes

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Slavery Quotes

“Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?”

Source: Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House

“And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?”

“I won't give up until the exploitation of all children has ended and all children have their rights.”

Giving Children Rights Giving Up Slavery Human Rights Exploitation Won't Give Up I Won't Give Up

Author:Craig Kielburger

“The saddest sight these days is the image of hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped and lured into being child soldiers from the age of eight.”

Children Age Sight Slavery Soldier Eight These Days Saddest Kidnapped Child Soldier

Author:Roger Moore

“By reserving the penalty of death for black defendants, or for the poor, or for those convicted of killing white persons, we perpetrate the ugly legacy of slavery-teaching our children that some lives are inherently less precious than others.”

Children Persons Black White Poor Teaching Our Children Slavery Killing Ugly Legacy Penalties Death Penalty

Author:Joseph Lowery

“My brother has two children now, so I've been playing aunt Renee. They're two and four. It's chaos. Moms out there, kudos to you. The cool thing about being an aunt is like, I can leave. No offense to my big brother Drew, but that is slavery. I dare you to take a shower. You can't do anything unless they let you. It's a dictatorship. They're little dictators in their crib.”

Children Littles I Can Two Bigs Four Brother Mom Slavery Chaos Dare My Brother Dictatorship Dictator Showers Offense Aunt Cool Things My Big Brother

Author:Renee Zellweger

“We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings and queens, and thereby ignore the Middle Passage and centuries of enforced servitude in the Americas. Although some of us might indeed be the descendants of African royalty, most of us are probably descendants of their subjects, the daughters and sons of African peasants or workers.”

“The Scriptures have been misused to defend bloody crusades and inquisitions; to support slavery, apartheid, and segregation; to sanction the physical and emotional abuse of women and children; to persecute Jews and other non-Christian people of faith; to support the holocaust of Hitler's Third Reich; to oppose medical science; to condemn inter-racial marriage; to execute women as witches; to excuse the violent racism of the Ku Klux Klan; to mobilize militias, white supremacy and neo-nazi movements; and to condone intolerance and discrimination against sexual minorities.”

“The great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights... not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression, but also for enthusiastic justifications for slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, and genocide... Moreover, religion enshrined hierarchy, authority, and inequality... It was the age of equality that brought about the disappearance of such religious appurtenances as the auto-da-fe and burning at the stake.”

“Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults”

Giving Children War Hate Force Expression Becoming Adults Hatred Slavery Instruments Killing Soldier Violent Compelled Child Soldier

Author:Olara Otunnu

“In all the ages the Roman Church has owned slaves, bought and sold slaves, authorized and encouraged her children to trade in them. . . . There were the texts; there was no mistaking their meaning; . . . she was doing in all this thing what the Bible had mapped out for her to do. So unassailable was her position that in all the centuries she had no word to say against human slavery.”

Humans Children Age Religion Church Century Position Slavery Trade Slave

Author:Mark Twain

“Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as 'unnecessary.' For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day; children being used as soldiers, abused and killed in armed conflicts; and children being bought and sold in that terrible form of modern slavery which is human trafficking, which is a crime against humanity.”

“I was, in reality, bred by my parents as my father's concubine... What we take for granted as the stability of family life may well depend on the sexual slavery of our children. What's more, this is a cynical arrangement our institutions have colluded to conceal.”

Wells May Children Reality Father Parent Depends Our Children Institutions Slavery Feminist Granted Stability Cynical Arrangements Family Life Misandry Concubines

Author:Sylvia Fraser

“When you consider that God could have commanded anything he wanted--anything!--the Ten [Commandments] have got to rank as one of the great missed moral opportunities of all time. How different history would have been had he clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny, taking over other people's countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife-beating, stoning, treating women--or anyone--as chattel or inferior beings.”

“And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone.”

Children Responsible Slavery

Author:Mother Jones

“America is the promised land, because each generation bequeathed to its children a promise, a promise that they might not come to enjoy but which they fully expected their offspring to fulfill. So the words 'all men are created equal' took a life of its own, ultimately destined to end slavery and enfranchise women. And the words 'equal protection' and 'due process' inevitably led to the end of the words 'separate but equal,' ensuring that the walls of segregation would crumble, whether at the lunch counter or at the voting booth.”

Source: Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics

“As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth . . . Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery.”

Children Hard Hands Suffering Results Taken Mass Hundred Labor Slavery Suicide Committed Chosen Conception Pregnant Exhausted Delivery Childbirth

Book:Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

Source: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“Human beings are not property. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude' - ring true.”

“Slavery is theft - theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne.”

Children Might Produce Slavery Property Slave Theft Be A Slave Slavery Freedom

Book:Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader

Source: Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader

“Millions of our fellow human beings continue to live as contemporary slaves, victims of abominable practices like human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Countless children are forced to become soldiers, work in sweat shops or are sold by desperate families. Women are brutalized and traded like commodities. Entire households and villages labour under debt bondage.”

“On this International Day for the Abolition of Slavery let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts to build societies in which slavery truly is a term for the history books.”

Men Children Book Term Effort Dignity Slavery International Inherent Men Women Abolition History Books Abolition Of Slavery

Author:Ban Ki-moon

“In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.”

Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

“TRUTH: When a child believes he must win to be worthy, when young adults define themselves by what they do and not who they are, it is a kind of slavery a slave master would envy.”

Believe Kind Children Young Winning Masters Adults Slavery Slave Young Adult Worthy Envy

Author:Tom Shadyac

“And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?”

Children Mother Jesus Grief Heard Slavery Cried Thirteen Mud Puddles

Author:Sojourner Truth

“In [India] and across the globe, hundreds and thousands of children, as young as three, as young as four, are sold into sexual slavery. But that's not the only purpose that human beings are sold for. They are sold in the name of adoption. They are sold in the name of organ trade. They are sold in the name of forced labor, camel jockeying, anything, everything.”

Humans Children Inspiration Young Purpose Motivation Three Names Human Beings Four Labor India Slavery Trade Organs Adoption Globes Camels

Author:Sunitha Krishnan

“Democracy is not just freedom to criticize the government or head of state, or to hold parliamentary elections. True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugates people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.”

“Is slavery - owner, victim, profit, and domination - exclusive to the human race? Have blacks, Jews, women and children been the only victims of this atrocity? Have not cows been enslaved? What about pigs, chickens, turkeys, fish, sheep? If they’re not enslaved, then what are they? Free?”

Ifs Humans Children Race Victim Slavery Fishes Profit Jew Human Race Owners Chickens Cows Sheep Pigs Domination Turkeys Exclusive Atrocities

Author:Gary Yourofsky

“Identification with the body, with the mind, with our possessions, with our families, with our friends - any kind of identification takes you outwards. All your possessions will be outwards: your wife, your husband, your children, your body - your body is outside you; your mind - your mind is outside you. The only thing that is not outside you is the witnessing. Just the watchfulness - that is your buddha. Identification means losing witnessing, falling into the trap of attachment. That is our misery, that is our slavery.”

Mind Kind Mean Children Body Fall Wife Husband Losing Our Children Slavery Misery Possession Your Body Our Family Your Children Attachment Traps Identification Your Husband Watchfulness

Author:Rajneesh

“A lot of work still remains but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime.”

Children Stills Ends Labor Slavery Remains Lifetime Child Labor Slave Labor Child Labour Slave Labour

Author:Kailash Satyarthi

“If, while I hear the wild shriek of the slave mother robbed of her little ones, I do not open my mouth, am I not guilty?”

Ifs Children Littles Mother Mouths Slavery Guilt Slave Hearing Guilty Inaction Robbing Abolitionist Guilty Conscience Not Guilty Suffragists

Author:Lucy Stone

“The Catholic Church is the only thing that saves man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.”

Men Children Age Church Catholic Slavery Catholic Church Degrading

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Although we have, in theory, abolished human slavery, recognized women's rights, and stopped child labor, we continue to enslave other species who, if we simply pay attention, show quite clearly that they experience parental love, pain, and the desire for freedom, just as we do.”

Ifs Humans Children Shows Pain Desire Pay Attention Rights Theory Labor Slavery Species Pay Attention Womens Rights Abolish Parental Parental Love Child Labor Love Pain Child Labour

Author:Ingrid Newkirk

“Our redemption through the suffering of Christ is that deeper love within us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of fear - love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found.”

Children Might Suffering Order Found Christ Sin Liberty Greater Grace All Things Slavery Deeper Redemption Child Of God Fear Of Love Deeper Love

Author:Peter Abelard

“Among other possibilities, money was invented to make it possible for a foolish man to control wise men; a weak man, strong men; a child, old men; an ignorant man, knowledgeable men; and for a dwarf to control giants.”

Children Wisdom Humor Kids Funny Jobs Young Quotes Strong Work Wealth Freedom Poor Money Education Poverty Knowledge Power Economy Rich Wise Impossible Influence Possibility Humour Masters Fool Authority Humorous Weakness Weak Intelligent Quote Slavery Profound Philosopher Quote Of The Day Riches Foolish Invention Ignorant Educated Employment Giants Thoughtful Control Enlightened Satire Wealthy Thought Provoking Deep Insightful Job Child Mastery Aphorism South Africa Quotations Africa Possibilities Employed Domination Bondage Maxims Sayings Possible Adages Dominion Proverbs Aphorisms Make You Think Old Working Dominance Axioms Servitude Adage Knowledgeable Master Proverb Satirical Saying Dwarfs Epigrams Enslavement African Quotation Fools Gnome Satirist Maxim Well Educated Epigram Gnomes Provoke Thought Made Me Think Scholarly Kid Axiom Dictum Dictums Midget Erudite South African Controlling Giant Invent Satirists Dominate Impossibilities Informed Dwarf Well Read Economies Serfdom Slave Masters Cultivated Cultured Well Informed Monied Ignoramus Invented Thrall Deep Pockets Monies Slave Master Thralldom Vassalage Midgets

Book:The Use and Misuse of Children

Source: The Use and Misuse of Children

“Leave before Sethe could make her realize that worse than that - far worse - was what Baby Suggs died of, what Ella knew, what Stamp saw and what made Paul D tremble. That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn't think it up. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best thing she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing - the part of her that was clean.”

Children Transformation Slavery

Book:Beloved

Source: Beloved