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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“It is often asserted that as woman has always been man's slave--subject--inferior--dependent, under all forms of government and religion, slavery must be her normal condition. This might have some weight had not the vast majority of men also been enslaved for centuries to kings and popes, and orders of nobility, who, in the progress of civilization, have reached complete equality.”

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Author:Susan B. Anthony
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“What shall be said, then, of those who insist upon ignoring the question of slavery as not involved in this deadly feud, and maintain that the only issue is, the support of the government and the preservation of the Union? Surely, they are "fools and blind"; for it is slaveholders alone who have conspired to seize the one, and overturn the other. As long as the enslavement of a single human being is sanctioned in the land, the curse of God will rest upon it.”

HumansLongSaidGovernmentHuman BeingsSupportIssuesLandFoolInvolvedSlaveryBlindUnionsGods WillCursePreservationEnslavementFeudsSlaveholders
Author:William Lloyd Garrison
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“Anarchism is opposed to states, armies, slavery, the wages system, the landlord system, prisons, monopoly capitalism, oligopoly capitalism, state capitalism, bureaucracy, meritocracy, theocracy, revolutionary governments, patriarchy, matriarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, protection rackets, intimidation by gangsters, and every other kind of coercive institution. In other words, anarchism opposes government in all its forms.”

KindStatesGovernmentFormCapitalismArmyInstitutionsSlaveryPrisonProtectionPatriarchyWagesBureaucracyMonopolyAnarchismMonarchyGangstersIntimidationOligarchyRacketLandlordTheocracyMatriarchyOligopoly
Author:Donald Rooum
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“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.”

MenHumansChildrenWarGovernmentWantedMotherHeavenLibertyHistoryWillingHolyShotsSlaveryUnionsDemocratSoldierEvery ManNakedBlockCivil WarLabourYellowFlagsSolitaryCorpsesAltarsFeverAmerican Civil WarLashesAuctionsYellow FeverBloodhounds
Author:Robert Green Ingersoll
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“There are three ways in which a man becomes a slave. He may be born into slavery, or forced into it, or he can deliberately accept his servitude. All three forms flourish in the modern world. Men are born and forced into slavery in Russia and her satellites states. Men in the free world invite slavery when they ask the government to provide complete security, when they surrender their freedom to the "Welfare State."”

MenWorldWayMayStatesWisdomGovernmentFormThreeAsksPoliticsBornAcceptingEconomyModernSecuritySlaverySlaveSurrenderRussiaWelfareLiberalismInvitesModern WorldServitudeSatellitesWelfare StateFree WorldThree Ways
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“Tony Blair a couple years ago was going around apologizing for everything. He apologized for the Irish potato famine. The Canadian government apologized for how it treated Indian school children.When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for being the biggest slave-holding-supporting institution on the planet and sticking with racism for the century after the abolition of slavery?”

YearsChildrenGovernmentSchoolPartyCenturyPlanetsCoupleRacismYears AgoInstitutionsSlaveryDemocraticSlaveTreatedIndianApologizingPotatoesDemocratic PartyFamineAbolitionBlairAbolition Of SlaveryPotato FamineCanadian Government
Author:Sean Hannity
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“This is what the government is, has always been, the creator and defender of privilege; the organization of oppression and revenge. To hope that it can ever become anything else is the vainest of delusions. They tell you that Anarchy, the dream of social order without government, is a wild fancy. The wildest dream that ever entered the heart of man is the dream that mankind can ever help itself through an appeal to law, or to come to any order that will not result in slavery wherein there is any excuse for government.”

MenHeartHelpingDreamGovernmentLawOrderSocialResultsMankindOrganizationSlaveryPrivilegeCreatorExcuseRevengeOppressionAppealsFancyDelusionAnarchyDefendersSocial OrderWildest Dreams
Author:Voltairine de Cleyre
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“Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.”

PeopleMenShouldHumansWellsHas BeensGovernmentBornUnitedRaceWatchesOughtLessonsSlaveryIgnorantHuman RaceEnlightenedOver ItDividedAwakenedCheatedYokeBorn Free
Author:James Madison
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“Movements are not radical. Movements are the American way. A small group of abolitionists writing and speaking eventually led to the end of slavery. A few stirred-up women brought about women's voting. The Populist movement, the Progressive movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women's movement - the examples go on and on of 'little people' getting together and telling the truth about their lives. They made our government act.”

PeopleWayWritingLittlesMadeWarEndsGovernmentTogetherGroupsExampleMovementGoes OnSlaveryActivismRadicalVotingTelling The TruthProgressiveVietnamSocial ChangeVietnam WarSmall GroupsPopulistAbolitionistProgressive MovementAnti Vietnam War
Author:Unita Blackwell
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“There is nothing grand or noble in having the use of a slave, in so far as he is a slave; or in issuing commands about necessary things. But it is an error to suppose that every sort of rule is despotic like that of a master over slaves, for there is as great a difference between the rule over freemen and the rule over slaves as there is between slavery by nature and freedom by nature . .”

UseGovernmentDifferencesMastersSlaveryErrorsSlaveNobleCommandFreemanNecessary Things
Book:Politics
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“Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.”

MenMindHas BeensBodyGovernmentLawSocialChurchEffortCenturyDivineTheoryKingsInstitutionsSlaveryAll TimeThrownMind And BodyHabitualDefendersBad GovernmentDivine RightIncorrigibleSocial TheoryBad LawsDivine Right Of Kings
Author:H. L. Mencken
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“Ben Skinner's brains and courage take us into the belly of the beast and expose the ugly truth of modern slavery. Instead of sensation, A Crime So Monstrous gives us desperately needed insight and analysis. This is an important book, the first deep look into America's confused relationship with human trafficking and slavery today. Skinner's balanced dissection of our government's haphazard policies will be controversial, but it can also be the foundation for a new anti-slavery agenda, one that ends the political games being played with the lives of slaves.”

GivingFirstsHumansLooksImportantBookEndsGovernmentTodayAmericaPoliticalGamesBrainModernCrimePolicyNeededFoundationSlaverySlaveUglyInsightAnalysisBeastConfusedAgendasSensationsBalancedBellyControversialMonstrousHuman TraffickingTraffickingBeing PlayedHaphazardDissectionPolitical GamesAnti SlaverySkinnerModern SlaveryUgly TruthSlavery Today
Author:Kevin Bales
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“Civil rights, as we may remember, are reducible to three primary heads; the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property. In a state of slavery, the two last are wholly abolished, the person of the slave being at the absolute disposal of his master; and property, what he is incapable, in that state, either of acquiring, or holding, in his own use. Hence, it will appear how perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a democracy, which form the basis and foundation of our government.”

MayPersonsTwoStatesUseGovernmentLastsRememberFormThreeLibertyPrinciplesDemocracyRightsSecurityMastersBasesAbsolutesFoundationSlaveryPropertySlaveCivil RightsPrimariesIncapablePrivate PropertyPersonal LibertyPersonal Security
Book:A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia
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“Freedom is not simply the circumstances that allow you to do whatever you want. Freedom is not only the opportunity to choose. Freedom is the strength of character to choose and to do what is right. With that in mind, our age is not an age of freedom, but an age of slavery. It is subtle, but it is real. The foundation of freedom is not power or choice. Freedom is upheld not by men and women in government, but by people who govern themselves.”

PeopleMenWantMindRealCharacterGovernmentAgeChoicesOpportunityFreedomCircumstancesMen And WomenFoundationSlaverySubtleStrength Of CharacterDo Whatever You Want
Author:Matthew Kelly
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“All these cries of having "abolished slavery," of having "saved the country," of having "preserved the union," of establishing a "government of consent," and of "maintaining the national honor," are all gross, shameless, transparent cheats - so transparent that they ought to deceive no one.”

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Book:Let's Abolish Government
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“Slavery results from laws, laws are made by governments, and, therefore people can only be freed from slavery by the abolition of governments.... And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part.”

PeopleMenMadeSelfGovernmentLawResultsHonestInstitutionsSlaveryImmoralHonest ManAbolition
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live. Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.”

IfsGovernmentTodayPoliticalOrderOpportunityHalfEconomicCitizensProtectEqualVoteSlaveryAffairAverageCommittedGrantedDeniedPropositionsLive For TodayRight To VoteEqual OpportunityPolitical FreedomPollingConcededEconomic OrderEconomic Slavery
Book:The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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“I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it coming, for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it, but I could not. The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go on unless you acknowledge our right to self government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence.”

YearsWarSelfGovernmentNightFightingSawsGoes OnIndependenceSlaveryBlindMadAcknowledgeTwelveSelf-governmentAvert
Author:Jefferson Davis
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“You'll have to have the governments sell off all of their public domains; sell off their railroads, sell off their public land. You'll essentially have to introduce neo-feudalism. You'll have to roll the clock of history back a thousand years, and reduce the European population to debt slavery. It's as simple a solution as the Eurozone has imposed on Greece. And it's a solution that the leaders and the banks are urging for responsible economists to promote for the population at large.”

YearsGovernmentSimpleLeaderLandThousandSolutionsResponsibleSlaverySellsPopulationDebtClockIntroducingThousand YearsEconomistDomainGreeceRailroadsFeudalismEurozonePublic DomainPublic Lands
Author:Michael Hudson
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“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.”

BelieveGovernmentFallHouseBeliefI BelieveHalfOne ThingSlaveryUnionsSlaveEndureCeaseCivil WarDividedAmerican Civil WarDividingBe A SlaveAmerican SlaverySlavery In AmericaStates RightsHouse DividedDivided Government
Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“Our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics.”

MenWarStatesGovernmentPoliticalInterestInfluenceSpecialIntegrityMethodSlaveryProfitCivil WarThreatenedCottonSpecial InterestsSinister
Book:The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt: Condensed from the Original Ed., Supplemented by Letters, Speeches, and Other Writings, and Edited with an Introd. by Wayne Andrews
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“It is my vision that we all will dedicate the next decade to achieve universal literacy and education for all children, especially for girls. More than 145 million of the world's children are deprived of education due to poverty, exploitation, slavery, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and corrupt governments. May Three Cups of Tea be a catalyst to bring the gift of literacy to each of those children who deserves a chance to go to school.”

WorldMayChildrenGovernmentSchoolGirlThreeNextReligiousChanceEducationVisionPovertyMillionsAchieveDeserveUniversalSlaveryEducationalGenderDuesDecadesDiscriminationCupsTeaExploitationLiteracyDeprivedExtremismCatalystReligious ExtremismCups Of TeaEducation For AllCorrupt GovernmentGender DiscriminationThree Cups Of Tea
Author:Greg Mortenson
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“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.”

ShouldStatesFactsGovernmentAmericaPoliticalHouseLostWhiteUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyVictorySlaveryAfrican AmericanWhite HouseUnited States Of AmericaAbrahamPhenomenalSymbolismEmancipationProclamationHelmEmancipation Proclamation
Book:Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
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“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“In the way our Fathers originally left the slavery question, the institution was in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind rested in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction . . . . All I have asked or desired anywhere, is that it should be placed back again upon the basis that the Fathers of our government originally placed it upon.”

WayShouldMindGovernmentCoursesFatherBeliefLeftUltimateBasesInstitutionsSlaveryExtinctionOur FatherBack Again
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“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.”

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Book:Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings
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“Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed. Patriotism is slavery.”

HumansWarGovernmentCommonConscienceDignityAimSlaveryInstrumentsCommon SensePatriotismAnti WarAmbitiousSubmissionSimplestAttainmentHuman DignityRenunciationMercenary
Book:The kingdom of God: and peace essays
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“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.”

MenGovernmentPainCasesRightsSubjectsVoteElectionSlaveryPrimariesVotingProtectedRepresentatives
Book:THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…
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“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”

PeopleFirstsMomentsFactsFeelingsGovernmentEarthPoliticsPovertyPoliticianUniversalSlaveryRichesRepublicEstablishmentDespotismSummary
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)
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“What words can express her [the white woman’s] humiliation when, at the close of this long conflict, the government which she had served so faithfully held her unworthy of a voice in its councils, while it recognized as the political superiors of all the noble women of the nation the negro men just emerged from slavery, and not only totally illiterate, but also densely ignorant of every public question.”

MenLongGovernmentPoliticalNationsVoiceWhiteConflictSlaveryNobleIgnorantSuperiorsHumiliationCouncilUnworthyIlliterate
Author:Susan B. Anthony
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“If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.”

IfsMenHas BeensMadeFeelingsGovernmentWould BeTogetherLibertyGreaterRightsDegreesSlaveryBillsNeighborContraryRidiculousPreservationBill Of Rights
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State
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“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.”

ThinkingWayShouldHas BeensMadeWholeGovernmentEyePurposeIndividualRaceFocusConceptsHatredConstitutionSlaveryPrivilegeDiscriminationPursueAliensPreservesJust OneWay Of ThinkingEntitlementMischiefAdmirableBenignRacial DiscriminationWrongedCreditorsDebtorsUnlawful
Author:Antonin Scalia
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