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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“...I cannot help being astonished at the furious and ungoverned execration which all reference to the possibility of a fusion of the races draws down upon those who suggest it, because nobody pretends to deny that, throughout the South, a large proportion of the population is the offspring of white men and colored women.”

MenHelpingWhiteRacePossibilityDrawsSlaverySouthPopulationDenyProportionWhite ManOffspringFuriousFusion
Book:Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839
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“We are a free people; and now you have planted in our country the title deeds of our future slavery. You are neither god nor demon; who are you, then, to make slaves? Orou! You understand the language of these men, tell us all, as you have told me, what they have written on this sheet of metal: This country is ours. This country yours? And why? Because you have walked thereon? If a Tahitian landed one day on your shores, and scratched on one of your rocks or on the bark of your trees: This country belongs to the people of Tahiti - what would you think?”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenCountryLanguageWrittenTreeAtheismRocksOne DaySlaverySlaveDeedsPositive AtheismOur CountryTitlesDemonShoreOur FutureMetalsSheetsBarkTahiti
Author:Denis Diderot
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“Slavery in America was perpetuated not merely by human badness but also by human blindness. ... Men convinced themselves that a system that was so economically profitable must be morally justifiable. ... Science was commandeered to prove the biological inferiority of the Negro. Even philosophical logic was manipulated [exemplified by] an Aristotlian syllogism: All men are made in the image of God; God, as everyone knows, is not a Negro; Therefore, the Negro is not a man.”

KnowsMenHumansMadeAmericaMoneyProveLogicPhilosophicalSlaveryConvincedBlindnessProfitableInferiorityGod ImageBadnessSlavery In America
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“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.”

MenHas BeensSelfWholeEyeAnimalRaceAudienceDogPositionGrewConsciousCatIndependenceSlaveryRagePreservesGentlemanConsiderationAffectedAppetiteHuntingLeisurePlatesBetrayedSelf ConsciousRenunciationSatellites
Book:Memories and Portraits: Stevenson's Vol. 21
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“To abolish a status, which in all ages God has sanctioned, and man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects; but it would be extreme cruelty to the African Savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life; especially now when their passage to the West-Indies and their treatment there is humanely regulated.”

MenCountryStatesWould BeAgeClassSubjectsFellowsSlaveryPropertyWestExtremesCrueltyTreatmentPassagesPortionsIntroducingSavagesBondageAbolishMassacresRobberyWest Indies
Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
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“Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men havethe same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated: his title to himself is as perfect now, as is that of Lyman Beecher: it is stamped on his moral being, and is, like it, imperishable.”

MenHumansMayGrowsHuman BeingsPerfectMoralRightsMoralitySlaverySlaveHuman RightsTitles
Author:Angelina Grimke
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“When white men were willing to put their own offspring in the kitchen and corn field and allowed them to be sold into bondage as slaves and degraded them as another man's slave, the retribution of wrath was hanging over this country and the South paid penance in four years of bloody war.”

MenYearsWarCountryWhiteFourFieldsWillingPaidSlaverySlaveSouthCivil WarKitchenFour YearsBloodyWhite ManBondageWrathCornAnother ManOffspringRetributionPenance
Book:Country Life in Georgia in the Days of My Youth: Also Addresses Before Georgia Legislature Woman's Clubs, Women's Organizations and Other Noted Occasions
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“We black women must forgive black men for not protecting us against slavery, racism, white men, our confusion, their doubts. And black men must forgive black women for our own sometimes dubious choices, divided loyalties, and lack of belief in their possibilities. Only when our sons and our daughters know that forgiveness is real, existent, and that those who love them practice it, can they form bonds as men and women that really can save and change our community.”

KnowsMenRealSometimesFormChoicesBeliefWomenBlackCommunityWhitePracticeDoubtPossibilitySonRacismDaughterMen And WomenSlaveryForgivingLoyaltyConfusionDividedWhite ManBlack WomenOur CommunityOur DaughterDubious
Book:Saving Our Sons
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“If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and completions of hisown comfort,--who would not so much as part with his ice- cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think I must not hesitate to satisfy that man that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper by placing the negro nation on a fair footing than by robbing them.”

IfsThinkingMenMatterLastsNationsRaceComfortFairsSlaveryIceRuinsCreamIce CreamCheaperCompletionDecorationRobbingVanilla
Book:The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“It is said that the Negro is ignorant. But why is he ignorant? It comes with ill grace from a man who has put out my eyes to makea parade of my blindness,--to reproach me for my poverty when he has wronged me of my money.... If he is poor, what has become of the money he has been earning for the last two hundred and fifty years? Years ago it was said cotton fights and cotton conquers for American slavery. The Negro helped build up that great cotton power in the South, and in the North his sigh was in the whir of its machinery, and his blood and tears upon the warp and woof of its manufactures.”

IfsMenYearsHas BeensSaidTwoEyeLastsFightingPoorPovertyGraceBloodTearsRacismHundredYears AgoSlaverySouthIllIgnorantConquerFiftyEarningBlindnessSighMachineryParadesCottonReproachWrongedWarpAmerican Slavery
Author:Frances Harper
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“For all our penny-wisdom, for all our soul-destroying slavery to habit, it is not to be doubted that all men have sublime thoughts; that all men value the few real hours of life; they love to be heard; they love to be caught up into the vision of principles. We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had, in the dreary years of routine and of sin, with souls that made our souls wiser; that spoke what we thought; that told us what we knew; that gave us leave to be what we only were.”

MenYearsMadeRealSoulCharacterLightValuesHoursMemoriesSinVisionPrinciplesHeardHabitMarkSlaveryCaughtInterviewsSpokesRoutineDestroyingWiserSublimeCaught UpPenniesDoubtedDreary
Book:Essays and Lectures
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“Historian Larry Hise notes in his book Pro-Slavery that ministers 'wrote almost half of all defenses of slavery published in America.' He listed 275 men of the cloth who used the Bible to prove that white people were entitled to own black people as work animals.”

PeopleMenBookAmericaUsedReligionBlackWhiteAnimalHalfProveSlaveryNotesDefenseMinistersHistorianBlack PeopleEntitledLarryPro Slavery
Book:Holy horrors: an illustrated history of religious murder and madness
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“These semi-traitors [Union generals who were not hostile to slavery] must be watched. Let us be careful who become army leaders in the reorganized army at the end of this Rebellion. The man who thinks that the perpetuity of slavery is essential to the existence of the Union, is unfit to be trusted. The deadliest enemy the Union has is slavery - in fact, its only enemy.”

ThinkingMenWarEndsFactsExistenceLeaderEnemyHe ManEssentialsArmySlaveryUnionsCarefulCivil WarRebellionBe CarefulTrustedHostileTraitor
Author:Rutherford B. Hayes
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“If you're creating a slave situation, you would almost never bring women. And if we look at Slavery for example, we look at the Greeks and the Romans, right? It was always men. They never brought any women. Because women carry the seeds of the revolution, right? And if you have the men by themselves, then you can do what the French did with the Blackfeet, which is breed them out.”

IfsMenLooksCan DoSituationExampleHe ManRevolutionCreatingSlaverySlaveSeedsGreek
Author:Nikki Giovanni
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“One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.”

MenFeelsHumansMomentsHomeCareEffortJourneyLandInspireHabitTravelWeightSlaveryWanderAround The WorldHuman LifeRoutineTime TravelTraveledFunny TravelShakingTravellerDepartureCloaksGreat TravelInspiring TravelTravel AdventureAdventure And TravelFettersInspirational AdventureAdventure And LifeTravel Journey
Author:Richard Burton
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“Whilst America hath been the land of promise to Europeans, and their descendants, it hath been the vale of death to millions of the wretched sons of Africa... Whilst we were offering up vows at the shrine of Liberty... whilst we swore irreconcilable hostility to her enemies... whilst we adjured the God of Hosts to witness our resolution to live free or die... we were imposing on our fellow men, who differ in complexion from us, a slavery, ten thousand times more cruel than the utmost extremity of those grievances and oppressions, of which we complained.”

MenAmericaDiesLibertyEnemyMillionsLandSonPromiseThousandTenFellowsSlaveryOppressionWitnessResolutionHostOfferingWretchedFellow ManHostilityVowImposingDescendantsGrievanceShrinesComplexionExtremityLive Free
Author:St. George Tucker
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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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“Elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, "where annual elections end, there slavery begins." These great men ... should be (chosen) once a year-Like bubbles on the sea of matter bourne, they rise, they break, and to the sea return. This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.”

MenShouldYearsEndsMatterWholePoliticalTeachBreakVirtueSeaHumilityReturnElectionSlaveryEvery ManCirclesChosenBeastGreat MenBubblesRepresentativesModerationMaximsPreyAnnualsInfallibleCounselorBourneGreat Political
Author:John Adams
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“Let us hear the dangers of thralldom to our consciences from ignorance, extreme poverty, and dependence; in short, from civil and political slavery. Let us see delineated before us the true map of man. Let us hear the dignity of his nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God-that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust, as offensive in the sight of God as it is derogatory from our own honor or interest or happiness-and that God Almighty has promulgated from heaven liberty, peace, and goodwill to man!”

MenPoliticalHeavenPeaceInterestLibertyPovertyDangerIgnoranceHonorConscienceDignitySightSlaveryExtremesNobleMapsAlmightyOffensiveDependenceGoodwillBreachExtreme PovertyDerogatorySacrilegiousBreach Of Trust
Author:John Adams
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“Where annual elections end, there slavery begins ... Humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.”

MenEndsPoliticalPoliticsTermHumilityElectionSlaveryEvery ManBeastModerationPreyAnnualsTerm Limits
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man's quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition.”

PeopleMenHas BeensHomeDesireForceEasyBlackWealthWhiteResultsModernConditionsPrejudiceSlaveryBlack PeopleAncestorQuestsWhite ManUnworthyEasy Life
Book:Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
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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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“My crime is that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is that when I say that freedom is of God and slavery is of the devil, I mean just what I say. My fanaticism is that I insist on the American people abolishing slavery, or ceasing to prate on the rights of man.”

PeopleMenMeanEvilRightsCrimeDevilSlaveryMultitudesFanaticismSingularityAbolishing Slavery
Book:No Compromise with Slavery: An Address Delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, February 14, 1854
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“To repress rebellion is to maintain the status quo, a condition which binds the mortal creature in a state of intellectual or physical slavery. But it is impossible to chain man merely by slaving his body; the mind also must be held, and to accomplish this, fear is the accepted weapon. The common man must fear life, fear death, fear God, fear the Devil, and fear most the overlords, the keepers of his destiny.”

MenMindStatesBodyCommonDestinyImpossibleConditionsCreaturesWeaponsIntellectualDevilSlaveryAccomplishAcceptedChainsMortalsRebellionStatus QuoFear Of DeathKeepersCommon ManFear God
Author:Manly Hall
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“If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy.”

IfsMenWantDoeSaidTwoWarActionWantedJobsYoungWeekIdealsRiversSlaveryShoesCampaignsYoung ManCivil WarAttachmentSouthernTrafficTwo WeeksMississippiDesertedSturdySteamboats
Author:Hal Holbrook
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“For me, seeing our history told in this light, the ones who did rebel, the ones who did revolt, the revolutionaries, excited me. Seeing this story of the Underground Railroad ... and that is such a proud part of our history that not a lot of us know about, where these brave men and women, they were heroes, really helped tear down the system of slavery just by running.”

KnowsMenStoriesLightRunningSeeingTearsProudHeroMen And WomenSlaveryBraveExcitedRevolutionaryRebelRevoltRailroadsBrave ManUnderground Railroad
Author:Jurnee Smollett
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