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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“This was the face of slavery. To have nothing, and still have something more to lose.”

Stills Faces Loses Slavery

Author:Lalita Tademy

“The slavery of identity comes from our refusal to face ourselves. So we must begin the exploration to self-awareness. Where do we start?”

Self Faces Awareness Identity Self Awareness Slavery Exploration Refusal

Book:How to Wish

Source: How to Wish

“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin-just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain.”

“Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“Shatter the icons of slavery and fear. Replace the leer of the minstrel's burnt-cork face with a proud, serene and classic bronze of Benin.”

Faces Proud Slavery Classic Icons Serene Bronze Cork Minstrels

Book:Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall

Source: Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall

“First of all, everyone must acknowledge and feel that child slavery still exists in the world, in its ugliest face and form. And this is an evil, which is crime against humanity, which is intolerable, which is unacceptable and which must go. That sense of recognition must be developed first of all. And secondly there is a need of higher amounts of political will. There is a need of higher amount of corporate engagement, and the engagement of the public towards it. So, everybody has a responsibility to save and protect the children on this planet.”

“As black people, we want our story to be this constant ascendance from slavery. But it's not like that. You push and it goes up. Then there's a backlash, and if folks stop pushing, it goes down. Let's face it, it's a lot more complicated.”

People Ifs Want Stories Faces Black Slavery Constant Folks Complicated Pushing Black People Backlash Pushing It

Author:Stanley Nelson Jr.

“I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

Should Years Mean Country Faces Dark One Thing Streets Built Opposites Slavery South Merit Bad Things Just Saying Posthumous

Author:Dave Zirin

“Just as Uncle Tom, back during slavery used to keep the Negroes from resisting the bloodhound or resisting the Ku Klux Klan by teaching them to love their enemies or pray for those who use them despitefully, today Martin Luther King is just a twentieth-century or modern Uncle Tom or religious Uncle Tom, who is doing the same thing today to keep Negroes defenseless in the face of attack that Uncle Tom did on the plantation to keep those Negroes defenseless in the face of the attack of the Klan in that day.”

Use Today Faces Used Religious Enemy Teaching Modern Century Praying Kings Slavery Toms Uncles Luther Twentieth Century Resisting Defenseless Ku Klux Klan Plantations Uncle Tom Bloodhounds

Author:Malcolm X

“Half the country seceded from the other half when Abraham Lincoln was elected because half the country couldn't abide his position on slavery. You would think 150 years later this had all become pretty historically incontestable. Yet millions continue to contest it in the face of history. Rather the denial of slavery and all its monstrous repercussions defines to one twin America what the country is and means, and therein is the DNA of those "alternative facts" that people believe when they can't stand to believe the truth.”

People Thinking Years Believe Mean Country Facts America Faces Half Millions Position Slavery Alternatives Denial Twins Contests Dna Monstrous Abraham Other Half Repercussions

Author:Steve Erickson

“Holocausts do not amaze me. Rapes and child slavery do not amaze me. And Franklin, I know you feel otherwise, but Kevin does not amaze me. I am amazed when I drop a glove in the street and a teenager runs two blocks to return it. I am amazed when a checkout girl flashes me a wide smile with my change, though my own face had been a mask of expedience. Lost wallets posted to their owners, strangers who furnish meticulous directions, neighbors who water each other's houseplants - these things amaze me.”

Source: We Need To Talk About Kevin

“If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny.”

Ifs May America Faces Goal Freedom Destiny Failing Slavery Cruelty Opposition Tied Our Destiny Tied Up Scorned

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”

War Faces Three White Party Ignorance Slavery Elegant Slogans Ignorance In 1984

Book:Animal Farm and 1984

Source: Animal Farm and 1984

“The struggle to avert catastrophic climate change is bigger than all the other struggles, whether it is slavery, democracy struggles, the woman's right to vote, and so on I would argue that if what is at stake is securing life as we know it, then there can be no bigger struggle that we face.”

Ifs Knows Faces Struggle Democracy Vote Bigger Slavery Climate Climate Change Arguing Stakes Right To Vote Avert Others Struggles

Author:Kumi Naidoo

“Sir, I do firmly believe that domestic slavery, regulated as ours is, produces the highest toned, the purest, best organization of society that has ever existed on the face of the earth.”

Believe War Earth Faces Produce Highest Organization Slavery Civil War Regulation Planters

Book:Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond: Of South Carolina

Source: Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond: Of South Carolina

“In the same way that slavery was a moral challenge for the 19th century and totalitarianism was a challenge for the 20th century, the challenge that women and girls face around the world is the moral challenge of our time.”

World Way Faces Girl Challenges Moral Century Slavery Around The World Our Time 20th Century Totalitarianism 19th Century

Author:Sheryl WuDunn

“Above all I ask leaders and legislators and the entire international community above all to confront the reality of those who have been displaced by force, with effective projects and new approaches in order to protect their dignity, to improve the quality of their life and to face the challenges that are emerging from modern forms of persecution, oppression and slavery.”