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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“We can constitutionally extirpate slavery at this time. But if we fail to do this, then unless we intend hereafter to violate the Constitution, we shall have a fugitive slave law in operation whenever the war is over.”

Ifs War Law Failing Constitution Slavery Slave Operations Hereafter Fugitive

Author:Jay Sekulow

“The success of those doctrines would also subvert the Federal Constitution, change the character of the Federal Government, and destroy our rights in respect to slavery.”

Character Government Rights Respect Constitution Slavery Doctrine Federal Government

Author:John Henninger Reagan

“I think all these reverend gentlemen who insist on the word 'obey' in the marriage service should be removed for a clear violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which says there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude within the United States.”

Thinking Should States United Marriage United States Clear Constitution Slavery Gentleman Amendments Violation Servitude Involuntary Reverends Thirteenth Amendment

Book:Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As Revealed in Her Letters & Diary (Abridged)

Source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton: As Revealed in Her Letters & Diary (Abridged)

“Enslave a man and you destroy his ambition, his enterprise, his capacity. In the constitution of human nature, the desire of bettering one's condition is the mainspring of effort. The first touch of slavery snaps this spring.”

Men Firsts Humans Desire Effort Conditions Human Nature Ambition Spring Capacity Constitution Slavery Enterprise Snaps

Book:Slavery

Source: Slavery

“The fact that slavery is written into the Constitution is about as entrenched a form of classism as you could possibly imagine.”

Facts Form Imagine Written Constitution Slavery Classism

Author:Beau Willimon

“Slavery is wrong. If Slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and Constitutions against it, are themselves wrong, and should be silenced, and swept away.”

Ifs Should Law Constitution Slavery Swept Away

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery? Because certain things happened in the Constitution that had to change.”

Should Certain Happened Constitution Slavery Slave Things Happen Worried Should I

Author:Whoopi Goldberg

“The First Amendment of the US Constitution ... is an eloquent repudiation of the First Commandment's prohibition of religious freedom. It is also a repudiation of the Third Commandment's prohibition of freedom of speech. The Thirteenth Amendment repudiates the institution of slavery which is so cozily assumed by the Fourth and Tenth Protestant Commandments.”

“The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were all written by affluent white males, but to discuss them in any meaningful way, you have to bring in the roles of African Americans - the enslaved blacks - and the roles of women, who were scarcely acknowledged by those documents. You have to discuss why slavery wasn't outlawed by the Constitution, why women weren't given the votes. The Bill of Rights isn't about dead white males anymore, and it's not just about live white males either; it's about every minority group that exists.”

Vote Constitution Independence Slavery Meaningful African American Declaration Declaration Of Independence Bill Of Rights

Author:Russell Freedman

“Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither.”

Purpose Liberty Constitution Slavery Glorious

Author:Frederick Douglass

“I am now speaking of rights under the Constitution, and not of moral or religious rights. I do not discuss the morals of the people of Missouri, but let them settle that matter for themselves. I hold that the people of the slaveholding States are civilized men as well as ourselves, that they bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God and their posterity and not to us. It is for them to decide therefore the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves within their own limits.”

People Men Wells Matter States Religious Moral Rights Bears Limits Conscience Constitution Slavery Settling Abortion Civilized Posterity Missouri Religious Rights

Author:Stephen A. Douglas

“I would have the Constitution torn in shreds and scattered to the four winds of heaven. Let us destroy the Constitution and build on its ruins the temple of liberty. I have brothers in slavery. I have seen chains placed on their limbs and beheld them captive.”

Heaven Justice Liberty Four Brother Wind Diversity Constitution Social Justice Slavery Ruins Chains Temples Torn Limbs Captives

Author:William Wells Brown

“Slavery may, perhaps, be best compared to the infantile disease of measles; a complaint which so commonly attacks the young of humanity in their infancy, and when gone through at that period leaves behind it so few fatal marks; but which when it normally attacks the fully developed adult becomes one of the most virulent and toxic of diseases, often permanently poisoning the constitution where it does not end in death.”

May Doe Ends Young Humanity Behinds Gone Periods Disease Adults Constitution Mark Slavery Toxic Complaints Infancy Poisoning Infantile Measles

Author:Olive Schreiner

“An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave in not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it.”

Shows Constitution Slavery Property Slave Inspection

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.”

Men Ideas Constitution Slavery Property Conventions

Book:The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.”

Source: Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

“The Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider it purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? it is neither.”

Purpose Liberty Constitution Slavery Glorious Temples Documents Gateways Preamble

Author:Frederick Douglass

“Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”

Hands Purpose Reading Found Existence Principles Constitution Slavery Hostile Presentation Clauses Pro Slavery

Author:Frederick Douglass

“Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution's focus upon the individual. ...To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.”

“God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil ... and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Knows Giving Evil Constitution Slavery Endure Protection God Knows Detest

Book:Millard Fillmore Papers

Source: Millard Fillmore Papers

“I have ever been opposed to banks, - opposed to internal improvements by the general government, - opposed to distribution of public lands among the states, - opposed to taking the power from the hands of the people, - opposed to special monopolies, - opposed to a protective tariff, - opposed to a latitudinal construction of the constitution, - opposed to slavery agitation and disunion. This is my democracy. Point to a single act of my public career not in keeping with these principles.”

“Well for one, the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery - did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.”

Wells Crime Constitution Slavery Amendments Abolish Amendment 13

Author:Angela Davis

“Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves.”

Ifs Has Beens States Together United Constitution Regard Slavery Property Unions Species Obligation Recognition Enjoyed Formation Confederation

Author:Jefferson Davis

“Slavery discourages arts and manufacturing ...[and] every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.”

Art Born Masters Constitution Slavery Slave Tyrants Petty Discouraging Manufacturing Petty Tyrants

Author:George Mason

“Among the expected glories of the Constitution, next to the abolition of Slavery was that of Rum.”

Next Glory Constitution Slavery Expected Abolition Rum Abolition Of Slavery

Author:George Clymer

“Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment. If the guns are taken out of the hands of the people and only the pigs have guns, then it's off to the concentration camps, the gas chambers, or whatever the fascists in America come up with. One of the democratic rights of the United States, the Second Amendment to the Constitution, gives the people the right to bear arms. However, there is a greater right; the right of human dignity that gives all men the right to defend themselves.”

“And I take this opportunity to declare, that... I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as this writ of assistance is. It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, - the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law book.”

“I have lived among negroes, all my life, and I am for this Government with slavery under the Constitution as it is. I am for the Government of my fathers with negroes. I am for it without negroes. Before I would see this Government destroyed I would send every negro back to Africa, disintegrated and blotted out of space”

Government Father Space Constitution Slavery Destroyed

Author:Andrew Johnson

“Democracy is probably the only discovery by mankind which mostly brought it only happiness.”