Home / Topics / Slavery Quotes

Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“If you are going to abolish slavery, that opens up all these other questions: what system of labor is going to replace slave labor? What system of race relations is going to replace the race relations of slavery? Who is going to have power in the post-war South? The Emancipation Proclamation doesn't answer that question, but it throws [it] open.”

Ifs War Answers Race Labor Relation Slavery Slave South Posts Race Relations Emancipation Abolish Proclamation Post War Emancipation Proclamation Slave Labor

Author:Eric Foner

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”

“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

“The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American.”

Source: Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

“The Emancipation Proclamation...can remind us in 2013 of all the mistakes we never want to commit again but it can also motivate us to fulfill to an ever greater degree the definitive freedom-sustaining and life-enhancing principles of democracy in living action.”

Want Life Action Freedom Mistake Principles Democracy Greater Degrees Slavery Commit Emancipation Sustaining Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation

Author:Aberjhani

“I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."”

Believe States Purpose I Believe Speech Institutions Slavery Interfere Inclination Inaugural Inaugural Address Secession American Slavery Slavery In America Emancipation Proclamation

Book:The collected works of Abraham Lincoln

Source: The collected works of Abraham Lincoln

“I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the Acts of Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.”

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free.”

Giving Slavery Slave Conservative Civil War Honorable Hoping For The Best Be A Slave Proclamation Human Freedom Equality Of People Secession Equality Of Opportunity Emancipation Proclamation Us Civil War Slavery Freedom Congress And The President

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them, and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.”

War Shows Slavery Slave Civil War Bondage Emancipation Proclamation

Author:William H. Seward