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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”

Men Mind Use Body Might Able He Man Slavery Slave Bounds Rulers Sovereign Mental Slavery

Book:The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers

Source: The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers

“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.”

Men Government Might Form Order Women Progress Conditions Subjects Century Kings Civilization Normal Weight Slavery Majority Slave Dependent Inferiors Pope Nobility Forms Of Government

Author:Susan B. Anthony

“Slavery is the great and foul stain upon the North American Union. A dissolution, at least temporary, of the Union, as now constituted, would now be certainly necessary. The Union might then be reorganized on the fundamental principle of emancipation.”

Might Principles Fundamentals Slavery Unions Temporary Foul Stains Emancipation Dissolution Fundamental Principles

Author:John Quincy Adams

“If Americans should now turn back, submit again to slavery, it would be a betrayal so base the human race might better perish.”

Ifs Should Humans Might Would Be Turns Race Slavery Betrayal Human Race Submit

Book:God of the Machine

Source: God of the Machine

“I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.”

Men Might Joy Song Emotion Cry Sorrow Singing Evidence Slavery Slave Casts Islands Contentment Uncommon Desolate Cast Away

Book:Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, written by himself

Source: Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, written by himself

“You point out that war is only a symptom of the whole horrid business of human behavior, and cannot be isolated. And that, even if we abolish war, we shall not abolish hate and greed. So might it have been argued about slave emancipation, that slavery was but one aspect of human disgustingness, and that to abolish it would not end the barbarity that causes it. But did the abolitionists therefore waste their breath? And do we waste ours now in protesting against war?”

“A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will "thingify" them and make them things. And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them. All of these problems are tied together. What I'm saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, "America, you must be born again!"”

“When time and need require, we should resist with all our might, and prefer death to slavery and disgrace.”

Needs Should Might Slavery Resistance Disgrace

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.”

Should War Might Causes Party Conflict Slavery Expected Cease Civil War Magnitude American Civil War Duration Inaugural Address American Slavery Causes Of War

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“You might as well sell yourself to slavery at once, as marry man you dislike.”

Men Wells Might Slavery Sells Dislike

Book:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Easyread Large Edition

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Easyread Large Edition

“The most racist, nastiest act by the USA, after human slavery, was the bombing of Nagasaki. Not of Hiroshima, which might have had some military significance. But Nagasaki was purely blowing away men, women, and children.”

Men Humans Children Might Military Slavery Usa Racist Significance Men Women Bombing Hiroshima

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“No people ever yet groaned under the heavy yoke of slavery, but when they deserv'd it. ...The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought. ...If therefore a people will not be free; if they have not virtue enough to maintain their liberty against a presumptuous invader, they deserve no pity, and are to be treated with contempt and ignominy.”

People Ifs Enough Might Liberty Virtue Ought Truth Is Deserve Slavery Heavy Treated Pity Contempt Yoke Invaders Presumptuous Ignominy

Author:Samuel Adams

“It was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war waged against states fighting for their indepdence into a war waged against states fighting for the maintenance and extension of slavery...and the world, it might be hoped, would see it as a moral war, not a political; and the sympathy of nations would begin to run for the North, not for the South.”

World War States Might Running Political Fighting Nations Moral Slavery South Extensions Contests Transforming Disadvantages Maintenance

Book:A History of The American Poeple

Source: A History of The American Poeple

“There might be some sinister modern form of slavery going on.”

Might Form Modern Slavery Sinister

Author:Jordan Peele

“"First female president." That's it, and that's nowhere near, by the way, as powerful or penetrating as the first African-American president. I mean, women, yeah, I mean, make the case that they've been victimized. But they can't put themselves in the same shoes as slavery's legacy for example. Now, women might try to make the case. Hillary [Clinton] might try to make the case about not being ought to be able to vote, but it ain't gonna fly.”

Way Trying Firsts Mean Might Able President Powerful Cases Example Ought Female Vote Yeah Slavery Clinton Shoes African American Legacy American President Female President

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“The breakdown of the black community, in order to maintain slavery, began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn't have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.”

Men Way Kind Children Might Order Black Community Taken Married Men And Women Economics Rivers Slavery Your Children Breakdown Kinds Of Love Black Community Family Man Black Family

Author:Kerry Washington

“Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or by the empty pots made less tragic by your tales? If we were a people much given to revealing secrets, we might raise monuments and sacrifice to the memories of our poets, but slavery cured us of that weakness.”

People Ifs Inspirational Made Might Pain Night Song Given Black Memories Secret Known Sacrifice Poet Weakness Lonely Empty Raises Slavery Tales Tragic Pot Revealing Monument Lonely Nights

Author:Maya Angelou

“As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.”

Inspirational Mean Persons Long Might Women Creativity Positive Conflict Slavery Equality Memorable Soar Peace And Justice Peace Justice Nigeria Independence

Author:Marian Anderson

“Were not the disadvantages of slavery too obvious to stand in need of it, I might enumerate and describe the tedious train of calamities inseparable from it. I might show that it is fatal to religion and morality; that it tends to debase the mind, and corrupt its noblest springs of action. I might show that it relaxes the sinews of industry, clips the wings of commerce, and introduces misery and indigence in every shape.”

Source: The works of Alexander Hamilton: comprising his correspondence, and his political and official writings, exclusive of the Federalist, civil and military. Published from the original manuscripts deposited in the Department of State, by order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress

“So efficient are the available instruments of slavery; fingerprints, lie detectors, brain washings, gas chambers; that we shiver at the thought of political change which might put these instruments in the hands of men of hate.”

Men Hands Might Political Lying Hate Brain Slavery Instruments Available Gas Despise Efficient Chamber Washing Shiver Fingerprints Political Change Gas Chambers

Author:Bernard Baruch

“We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings and queens, and thereby ignore the Middle Passage and centuries of enforced servitude in the Americas. Although some of us might indeed be the descendants of African royalty, most of us are probably descendants of their subjects, the daughters and sons of African peasants or workers.”

“It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of slavery. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.”

Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

“America is the promised land, because each generation bequeathed to its children a promise, a promise that they might not come to enjoy but which they fully expected their offspring to fulfill. So the words 'all men are created equal' took a life of its own, ultimately destined to end slavery and enfranchise women. And the words 'equal protection' and 'due process' inevitably led to the end of the words 'separate but equal,' ensuring that the walls of segregation would crumble, whether at the lunch counter or at the voting booth.”

Source: Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics

“Slavery is, as an example of what white America has done, a constant reminder of what white America might do.”

Done Might America White Example Slavery Constant Reminders

Book:Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Source: Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

“Whoever is fortunate enough to be an American citizen came into the greatest inheritance man has ever enjoyed. He has had the benefit of every heroic and intellectual effort men have made for many thousands of years, realized at last. If Americans should now turn back, submit again to slavery, it would be a betrayal so base the human race might better perish.”

“Slavery is theft - theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne.”

Children Might Produce Slavery Property Slave Theft Be A Slave Slavery Freedom

Book:Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader

Source: Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader

“Democracy is not just freedom to criticize the government or head of state, or to hold parliamentary elections. True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugates people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.”

“Life is not given to us that we might live idly without work. No, our life is a struggle and a journey. Goof should struggle with evil; truth should struggle with falsehood; freedom should struggle with slavery; love should struggle with hatred. Life is movement, a walk along the way of life to the fulfillment of those ideas which illuminate us, both in our intellect and in our hearts, with divine light.”

Way Should Heart Ideas Light Might Life Is Evil Given Walks Struggle Our Lives Journey Movement Divine Hatred Slavery Intellect Fulfillment Falsehood Life Is A Struggle Goofs Divine Light

Author:Giuseppe Mazzini

“Our redemption through the suffering of Christ is that deeper love within us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of fear - love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found.”

Children Might Suffering Order Found Christ Sin Liberty Greater Grace All Things Slavery Deeper Redemption Child Of God Fear Of Love Deeper Love

Author:Peter Abelard

“The creation of the spiritual was no accident. It was a creation born of necessity, so that the slave might more adequately adjust himself to the conditions of the New World.”

World Might Spiritual Born Conditions Creation Slavery Slave Accidents New World

Author:Benjamin E. Mays