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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“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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“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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“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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“I envy neither the heart nor the head of any legislator who has been born to an inheritance of privileges, who has behind him agesof education, dominion, civilization, and Christianity, if he stands opposed to the passage of a national education bill, whose purpose is to secure education to the children of those who were born under the shadow of institutions which made it a crime to read.”

IfsHeartChildrenHas BeensMadePurposeReadingBornBehindsChristianityCrimeCivilizationShadowInstitutionsSlaveryBillsPrivilegeEnvySecureMade ItPassagesInheritanceDominionLegislators
Author:Frances Harper
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“The greatest number of drug addicts are to be found in Teheran and in Karachi, not in the West. Not in New York believe it or not. It's the same with the roles of slavery, racism and imperialism in the world. These institutions were present in other cultures. However, it was Western civilization which did something about slavery, about racism and voluntarily dissolved its empires leaving behind a very positive legacy of institutions not to mention buildings and roadways.”

WorldBelieveCultureFoundNumbersBehindsRolesNew YorkBuildingCivilizationDrugRacismInstitutionsSlaveryWestWesternLeavingLegacyEmpiresImperialismAddictWestern CivilizationDrug AddictOther CulturesVery Positive
Author:Ibn Warraq
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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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“As for the South, it is enough to say that perhaps eighty per cent. of her armies were neither slave-holders, nor had the remotest interest in the institution. No other proof, however, is needed than the undeniable fact that at any period of the war from its beginning to near its close the South could have saved slavery by simply laying down its arms and returning to the Union.”

WarEnoughFactsInterestArmsNeededPeriodsArmyInstitutionsSlaveryUnionsSlaveSouthProofSavedCentsEightyLaying Down
Book:Reminiscences of the Civil War
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“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.”

FirstsReligiousAtheismSpeechThirdsConstitutionInstitutionsSlaveryPositive AtheismAmendmentsFourthFreedom Of SpeechCommandmentsFirst AmendmentProhibitionProtestantsEloquentReligious FreedomUs ConstitutionThirteenth Amendment
Author:Frank Zindler
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“We can no more justify using nonhumans as human resources than we can justify human slavery. Animal use and slavery have at least one important point in common: both institutions treat sentient beings exclusively as resources of others. That cannot be justified with respect to humans; it cannot be justified with respect to nonhumans—however “humanely” we treat them.”

HumansImportantUseAnimalCommonResourcesTreatsInstitutionsSlaveryJustifyJustifiedHuman ResourcesSentient BeingsFrancione
Author:Gary L. Francione
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“He [Stephen Douglas] is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.”

WayWantMindHumansSoulReasonLightLyingLibertyMoralInfluenceInstitutionsSlaverySlavePerpetualPreparingHuman Soul
Book:The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
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“We believe that the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general welfare. We believe - nay, we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself.”

KnowsBelieveInstitutionsSlaveryUnionsWelfareThreatenedGeneral Welfare
Book:The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)
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“I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question - that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices, - I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.”

SaidNationsInstitutionsSlaveryCompromiseSoilPermitExtensionsExtendingTerritorialNo Compromise
Book:Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46
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“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."”

BelieveStatesPurposeI BelieveSpeechInstitutionsSlaveryInterfereInclinationInauguralInaugural AddressSecessionAmerican SlaverySlavery In AmericaEmancipation Proclamation
Book:The collected works of Abraham Lincoln
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“In the first place, I insist that our fathers did not make this nation half slave and half free, or part slave and part free. I insist that they found the institution of slavery existing here. They did not make it so, but they left it so because they knew of no way to get rid of it at that time.”

WayFirstsFoundFatherLeftNationsHalfInstitutionsSlaverySlaveOur FatherBe A Slave
Book:CIVIL WAR – Complete History of the War, Documents, Memoirs & Biographies of the Lead Commanders: Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant & William T. Sherman, Biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis & Robert E. Lee, The Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Presidential Orders & Actions
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“The real difference of interests, lay not between large and small, but between the Northern and Southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences formed a line of discrimination.”

RealStatesInterestDifferencesLinesConsequenceInstitutionsSlaveryLaysDiscriminationSouthern
Book:The Constitution a pro-slavery compact, or, Extracts from the Madison papers, etc
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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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“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.”

CountryEarthMotherCommonStepsPrinciplesSawsHeardIndependenceInstitutionsSlaveryLipsOppressionHypocrisyJustifySooner Or LaterDeclarationDestinedUnnaturalDeclaration Of IndependenceReproachSyllablesInconsistencyInsincerityMother CountryStep Mother
Author:John Quincy Adams
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“I can not but hate the prospect of slavery's expansion. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity.”

WorldI CanWarRealHateCausesEnemyDoubtInfluenceExampleRepublicanI HateInstitutionsSlaveryInjusticeCivil WarSincerityExpansionCan NotReal FriendsHypocriteMonstrousTaunting
Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“Adrian Rogers told us as often as he could he took the Bible literally. He illustrated by saying he believed the world was created in six 24-hour days. And he repeated this to make an impression upon us. In private (Jerry Vines was with us), I asked Rogers what he did with the slavery passages of the New Testament. Did he take them literally? He paused and said, 'Well, I believe slavery is a much-maligned institution. If we had slavery today, we would not have this welfare mess.'”

IfsWorldBelieveWellsSaidTodayI BelieveHoursSixInstitutionsSlaveryImpressionMessWelfarePassagesTestamentNew TestamentRogerJerryVinesSlavery Today
Author:Adrian Rogers
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“Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.”

LawRaceGroupsPolicyMassInstitutionsSlaveryDefinedCustomsCrowSubordinatesIncarcerationJim CrowMass IncarcerationJim Crow Laws
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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“Since the nation's founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time.”

NeedsHas BeensFormDiesNationsInstitutionsSlaveryAfrican AmericanControlledFoundingConstraintsCrowRebornJim CrowTailored
Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
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