Best slavery & independence Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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.:

“It is just this rage for consideration that has betrayed the dog into his satellite position as the friend of man. The cat, an animal of franker appetites, preserves his independence. But the dog, with one eye ever on the audience, has been wheedled into slavery, and praised and patted into the renunciation of his nature. Once he ceased hunting and became man's plate-licker, the Rubicon was crossed. Thenceforth he was a gentleman of leisure; and except the few whom we keep working, the whole race grew more and more self-conscious, mannered and affected.”

Source: Memories and Portraits: Stevenson's Vol. 21

“For two hundred years Haiti has been swimming upstream. We were the first country in which independence was won by a group of slaves - black slaves. Across the water, the country that had just achieved independence - the U.S. - still practiced slavery.”

Years Firsts Has Beens Stills Two Country Black Water Groups Hundred Independence Slavery Slave Swimming Haiti Swimming Upstream

Author:Michele Montas

“It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”

People Persons Done Law Used Easy Liberty Degrees Benefits Independence Slavery Property Oppression Proportion Legislators Plunder Personal Independence

Author:Frederic Bastiat

“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.”

Years War Self Government Night Fighting Saws Goes On Independence Slavery Blind Mad Acknowledge Twelve Self-government Avert

Author:Jefferson Davis

“They're not leading our people toward any kind of independence, but they're using their positions and their education and their talent to exploit our people worse than the slave master did during slavery.”

People Kind Talent Position Masters Independence Slavery Slave Exploits

Author:Malcolm X

“Even the Declaration of Independence starts out all men are created equal, so I see my advocacy as part of an effort to make the equality principle everything the founders would have wanted it to be if they weren't held back by the society in which they lived and particularly the shame of slavery.”

Ifs Men Wanted Effort Principles Equal Shame Independence Slavery Founders Declaration Declaration Of Independence Advocacy

Author:Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“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

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

“The inconsistency of the institution of domestic slavery with the principles of the Declaration of Independence was seen and lamented . . . no insincerity or hypocrisy can be fairly laid to their charge. Never from their lips was heard one syllable of attempt to justify the institution of slavery. They universally considered it as a reproach fastened upon them by the unnatural step-mother country and they saw that before the principles of the Declaration of Independence slavery, in common with every other mode of oppression, was destined sooner or later to be banished from the earth.”

“In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in the making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it.”

Ifs Eternal Universal Independence Slavery Sacred Aids Graves Declaration Torn Bondage Declaration Of Independence Framers

Book:Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 1: 1832-1858: Library of America #45

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 1: 1832-1858: Library of America #45

“How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.”

Source: The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas

“The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds prevailed... Therefore they sent their emissaries into the field to exploit the question of slavery and to open an abyss between the two sections of the Union.”

“Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks.”

White Independence Slavery Slave Enjoyed African American Comedian Holiday 4th Of July Independence Day Fireworks Funny Holiday

Author:Chris Rock

“This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”

“Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable War of one portion of its citizens upon another portion; the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute extermination; in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence.”

Source: The Public Life of Capt. John Brown, with an Auto-biography of His Childhood and Youth

“The war...must go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks...unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence,and that, or extermination, we WILL have.”

Men War Self Government Lasts Fall Fighting Generations Goes On Independence Slavery Track Acknowledge Civil War This Generation Self-government Extermination

Author:Jefferson Davis

“Repeal the Missouri Compromise - repeal all compromises - repeal the Declaration of Independence - repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”

Men Humans Heart Stills Past Speak Change Human Nature Mouths Independence Slavery Compromise Abundance Can Not Declaration Extensions Declaration Of Independence Missouri

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“Biblical law permits voluntary slavery because it recognizes that some people are not able to maintain a position of independence . . . The law is humane and also unsentimental. It recognizes that some people are by nature slaves and will always be so.”

People Able Law Religion Position Independence Slavery Slave Permit Biblical Humane

Author:R.J. Rushdoony

“Man! The most complex of creatures, and for this reason the most dependant of creatures. On everything that has formed you, you may depend. Do not balk at this apparent slavery....a debtor to many, you pay for your advantages by the same number of dependencies. Understand that independence is a form of poverty; that many things claim you, that many also claim kinship with you.”

Men May Reason Form Numbers Pay Poverty Depends Creatures Advantage Claims Independence Slavery Complexes Dependency Kinship Debtors

Author:Andre Gide

“A human, caught under the oppression of a foreign nation in his/her own country, can be willingly to risk his/her life in order to achieve freedom. To call this act a self-sacrifice, one would have to presume that the person didn’t mind living as a slave of the British. The selfishness of a person who is willing to die, if necessary, fighting for his/her freedom, lies in the fact that he/she is unwilling to go on living in a world where he/she is no longer able to act on his/her own rules and regulations, that is, a world where rudimentary human conditions of existence are no longer possible.”

Freedom Independence Slavery Oppression Patriotism Nationalism Freedom Fighter Fighting For Freedom

Book:Prescription: Treating India's Soul

Source: Prescription: Treating India's Soul

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