“I hope that young people especially will begin to have a better understanding of slavery and its effects, which are still evident today, to understand those parallels and, from there, begin ta be a part of the wave of hope to change things for the better.” PeopleStillsTodayYoungUnderstandingEffectsSlaveryWaveEvidentParallels Author:Emayatzy E. Corinealdi
“We call 'Slavery is wrong' a moral truth because there is a specific history of theoretical investigation of a particular kind of slavery. We discussed it for centuries in metaphysical, economic, biological, and philosophical terms; we listened to all the arguments pro and con, we read all the testimonies of slaves and witnesses, and we decided. Though this 'we" is not everybody on earth, or even most people, who've never thought about slavery much.” PeopleKindEarthTermMoralEconomicCenturyParticularTruth IsArgumentDecidedPhilosophicalSlaverySlaveWitnessInvestigationMetaphysicalTestimonyTheoreticalPros And Cons Author:Catherine Wilson
“Zwarte Piet, or 'Black Pete,' is a relic from slavery. It is something that should have long been eliminated, and it's very insulting to black Dutch people. It's shocking to me that it still exists, but I think it's about the lack of knowledge and education regarding the roots of the character in the slave trade.” PeopleThinkingShouldLongStillsCharacterBlackRootsShould HaveSlaveryTradeSlaveShockingInsultingDutchRelicsEducation And KnowledgeSlave TradeLack Of Knowledge Author:Roger Ross Williams
“People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.” PeopleRaceRightsMovementComfortableRelationSlaveryCivil RightsEtcRace RelationsCivil Rights Movement Author:Paul Beatty
“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.” PeopleKindTalentPositionMastersIndependenceSlaverySlaveExploits Author:Malcolm X
“The population of African people in the United States is far in excess of six small European nations. Where we are going? We have to go back as best we can to where slavery and colonialism took us from. And they took us from a concept of nation management and nation maintenance. We have been so long away from home we unfortunately have forgotten how we ruled states before the foreigners got there.” PeopleLongHas BeensStatesHomeNationsUnitedUnited StatesSixConceptsManagementSlaveryForgottenPopulationExcessColonialismForeignersMaintenanceAway From Home Author:John Henrik Clarke
“We have different levels of slavery. We've got educational slavery. All the major religions of the world, even Christianity and Islam, are engaged in some form of servitude of people. I don't look favorably on either one although I think properly practiced all religions are basically good.” PeopleThinkingWorldLooksDifferentFormLevelsChristianityMajorsSlaveryIslamEducationalEngagedServitudeDifferent LevelsChristianity And Islam Author:John Henrik Clarke
“I have much more confidence in my ability, or any president or any leader's ability, to mobilize the American people around a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to help every child in poverty in this country than I am in being able to mobilize the country around providing a benefit specific to African Americans as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow.” PeopleChildrenCountryHelpingAblePresidentAbilityLeaderPovertyBenefitsConsequenceSlaveryDollarsInvestmentAfrican AmericanProvidingCrowJim Crow Author:Barack Obama
“When you think about the abolition of slavery for example, for the ruling class with the rich white people owning plantations and states, and things like that, slavery was to their benefit. To oppose it didn't make any sense at all on a rational basis. But on a rights basis, on a principle basis, it made obvious, overwhelming sense.” PeopleThinkingMadeStatesWhiteClassPrinciplesRichRightsExampleBenefitsBasesSlaveryObviousRationalOverwhelmingRulingAbolitionPlantationsAbolition Of Slavery Author:Edward Snowden
“That's one of the beauties, I think, of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy everybody and it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it.” PeopleThinkingMadeMillionsSlaveryDestroyedMade ItAfrican AmericanAdjustmentInner LifeAmerican Life Author:John Edgar Wideman
“We, the Black people of America, were chosen by Allah: Not to be "special" in the sense that we are better than others, but chosen because of the uniqueness of our position inside of America, and 460 years under slavery, neo-slavery, and injustice, to carry a message to the whole of humanity.” PeopleYearsWholeAmericaHumanityBlackSpecialPositionMessagesSlaveryInjusticeChosenBlack PeopleUniqueness Author:Louis Farrakhan
“Slavery remained in the Deep South by other names - in prison programs with charges over nothing and eternal debt that threatened every African-American in the South right up through World War II. And that was after killing three-quarters of a million people, destroying cities, and creating hostility that exists to this day over the the Confederate flag and the racism it symbolizes, all brewing out of bitterness over a war that didn't have to happen.” PeopleWorldWarHappensThreeNamesCitiesMillionsEternalCreatingRacismProgramSlaveryPrisonSouthKillingDebtAfrican AmericanWar Of The WorldsThis DayBitternessDestroyingQuartersWorld War IiFlagsWorld War IThreatenedHostilityConfederateBrewingConfederate Flag Author:David Swanson
“No other nation killed people the way the United States did to end slavery.” PeopleWayEndsStatesNationsUnitedUnited StatesSlavery Author:David Swanson
“It was Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Wendell Phillips - these were the people who made abolition real. Now, none of you guys is in favor of slavery, right?” PeopleMadeRealGuySlaveryFavorsBrownAbolitionJohn Brown Author:Bill Ayers
“I think many Dutch just don't know the history of Black Pete, that he is rooted in slavery, and how he was used to dehumanize a race of people. Once they realize this, many stop using this character, but those who continue are either in denial, insensitive or actually racists.” PeopleThinkingKnowsCharacterUsedBlackRealizingRaceSlaveryDenialRacistRootedDutchInsensitive Author:Roger Ross Williams
“Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged - or required, in some people's view - required to leave the country. It's part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never have free black and white people living together.” PeopleShouldIdeasCountryTogetherAmericaBlackWhiteViewsAttitudeSlaverySlaveAfrican AmericanBlack And WhiteAbolitionMultiracialColonizationBe A SlaveBe EncouragedLiving TogetherAbolition Of Slavery Author:Eric Foner
“My people couldn't have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better. And there's some songs from the 19th and 18th century that say [sings], "By and by, by and by, I will lay down, this heavy load." And I mean, so many songs that spoke of hope and understand it better by and by. Amazing songs. So that the slaves, just knowing that he, she, did not have the right legally to walk within one inch away from where the slave owner dictated, and yet the same person, wrote and sang with fervor, "If the lord wants somebody, here am I, send me." It's amazing.” PeopleIfsWantMeanPersonsSongWalksLordKnowingCenturySlaveryLaysSlaveHeavyGet BetterOwnersSpokesInchesLoadSurvivedHaving Hope18th CenturyFervorSlave OwnersHeavy LoadsAmazing Song Author:Maya Angelou
“I truly believe slavery is why, as a by-product, we still have a disproportionate amount of black men incarcerated in America. It is an extension of that legacy, and that's not going to start to diminish until black people have a new sense of themselves that isn't tied to slavery and feeling inferior. I think the church can be instrumental in that, in terms of repentance, reconciliation and just being more embracing of each other - not just on Sunday, but in life generally.” PeopleThinkingMenBelieveStillsFeelingsAmericaBlackTermChurchProductsAmountSlaveryLegacySundayRepentanceBlack PeopleTiedJust BeingInferiorsExtensionsDiminishReconciliation Author:David Oyelowo
“With a few exceptions like Kraftwerk, most great 20th century Western music is in some way American-based. And the great paradox of America, the paradox that distills America, is that this greatest of American contributions to humanity, this American contribution that probably has influenced more people around the world for the good, that probably has brought more people around the world unqualified joy, was born of America's greatest evil, slavery. Or one of the two great evils anyway, counting the European extinction of those who were on the continent first.” PeopleWorldWayFirstsTwoAmericaJoyHumanityEvilBornCenturyMusic IsSlaveryWesternAround The WorldContributionExceptionParadoxContinents20th CenturyExtinctionCountingUnqualifiedWestern Music Author:Steve Erickson
“Half the country seceded from the other half when Abraham Lincoln was elected because half the country couldn't abide his position on slavery. You would think 150 years later this had all become pretty historically incontestable. Yet millions continue to contest it in the face of history. Rather the denial of slavery and all its monstrous repercussions defines to one twin America what the country is and means, and therein is the DNA of those "alternative facts" that people believe when they can't stand to believe the truth.” PeopleThinkingYearsBelieveMeanCountryFactsAmericaFacesHalfMillionsPositionSlaveryAlternativesDenialTwinsContestsDnaMonstrousAbrahamOther HalfRepercussions Author:Steve Erickson
“We've always had the blame-America crowd. We've always had the hate-America crowd. But we've now had at least two generations of education where this has been indoctrinated into the young skulls full of mush of young people. They've heard how horrible America was back in the days of slavery. They've heard how horrible America treated women. They've heard how horrible every minority group was treated. They've heard how mean-spirited the founders were. They've heard all kinds of literal lies.” PeopleKindMeanHas BeensTwoAmericaYoungLyingHateGenerationsHeardGroupsBlameSlaveryCrowdsHorribleTreatedAll KindsMinoritiesFoundersLiteralSkullsSpiritedMean SpiritedMinority Groups Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Social rules are susceptible to moral analysis. This is, again, relatively familiar in the domestic case, where we now condemn slavery as unjust. And when we affirm this judgment, we're not merely saying that all those people who owned slaves were unethical people; they shouldn't have done that. We do believe this, but that's only part of the point. We also believe that the fugitive slave laws were unjust.” PeopleBelieveDoneLawSocialMoralCasesJudgmentSlaverySlaveFamiliarAnalysisUnjustSusceptibleFugitiveUnethical Author:Thomas Pogge
“I think we live in slavery to fear. Most people don't have an answer to the death question and really don't even have a philosophy. That is a puzzle to me. I think even if I was not a Christian, I would want to at least have a personal solution to the death question. Otherwise, death is just a frightening thing.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantPhilosophyChristianAnswersSolutionsSlaveryFrighteningPuzzles Author:Max Lucado
“The process of creating art allows me to learn about the subject I'm illustrating. So, if I want to learn more about plantation life and slavery, I try to find clients that will give me an opportunity to work on projects that will visualize those experiences of the enslaved African and people of color. I get to learn about my roots, and my artwork allows the reader into that world by creating images that are accessible.” PeopleIfsWorldWantGivingTryingArtOpportunityProcessSubjectsColorReaderProjectsCreatingRootsGive MeSlaveryClientsArtworkPlantationsCreating ArtIllustrating Author:Jerry Pinkney
“There is no shortage of ways that people profit indirectly from the misery and cruelty in other places. Even now, the shirts we wear and the tomatoes we eat. There are unfortunately unfair and inhumane conditions - including literal slavery - all over the world.” PeopleWorldSlaveryMiseryCrueltyShirtsUnfair Author:Ben H. Winters
“When you talk about "white privilege", you're talking about something systemic. When you're talking about "black privilege" it's something spiritual because we as black people tap into a divine system that a lot of other cultures and races can't tap into and that system allows us to prosper in spite of everything that's been thrown our way from slavery to segregation to mass incarceration. We have a privilege pre-ordained by God that nothing and no one can stop.” PeopleSpiritualCultureBlackDivineSlaverySpiteBlack PeopleSegregationIncarceration Author:Charlamagne Tha God
“I don't think that Donald Trump represents the traditional Republican values and heritage of my party. That's one reason that I don't support him. The Republican Party has always revered the individual. We led the way in abolishing slavery, for example, and we recognize the dignity and worth of every human being. it is clear that Donald Trump, by his derogatory comments, by his mocking of the most vulnerable people in our society, by his marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities, doesn't reflect the traditional Republican values.” PeopleThinkingReasonValuesIndividualReligiousPartySupportRepublicanDignitySlaveryVulnerableCommentRepublican Party Author:Gwen Ifill
“I didn't know enough about the Civil War or its lingering effects as we all should. It's really easy to think that the Civil War was the end of slavery, and the triumph of our collective conscience and humanity over oppression. Sadly, the oppression and systemic subjugation of people of color in this country still exists.” PeopleThinkingWarCountryEnoughHumanityEasyConscienceSlaveryOppressionCivil War Author:Bryce Pinkham
“Do you realize how many people of this country have been educated, have grown up, who have been taught that, yeah, we're at risk and there's a lot of people that want to blow us up and don't like us. But we are to blame. That's what they've been taught. We are to blame, 'cause there was slavery, because we've stolen all these goods and resources from other countries. We have imposed our way of life on them! We've sent our military around, and we've conducted wars on their territory and so forth.” PeopleWarCountryRealizingRiskMilitaryBlameSlaveryBlowEducated Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I think all Americans need to recognize that, as tragic and horrible as slavery was, as big an economic shadow as it cast, the one thing it didn't do was strip people of their humanity. And I wish that all of us were as strong as the people that walked down those steps and got on those boats.” PeopleThinkingHumanityStrongWishEconomicShadowSlaveryHorribleBoatTragic Author:Lonnie Bunch
“Housing in New York City has become too expensive for many average wage earners, let alone people with marginal incomes, who find themselves displaced to far-flung neighborhoods or to the streets. Racist discrimination in housing, which has been around for decades and follows centuries of slavery, has exacerbated the housing affordability crisis for people of color.” PeopleCrisisSlaveryDiscriminationNeighborhoodRacist Author:Solly Granatstein
“Before slavery, Africa had a culture. We had medicine and our cure for malaria. Slavery brought diseases that we were not used to; slavery brought industry and people were criticizing industry way back as 2,000 years ago, that it was going to pollute the air, sea. Industry is not the way. We must deal with nature.” PeopleCultureSlaveryCriticize Author:Femi Kuti
“Now we have to understand that slavery would not have ended if it was left to the Africans alone, Now, Europe understood that what they were doing then was unjust, but imagine the propaganda from kings and queens of Europe to convince their people that we were cannibals, idol worshipers, horrible people, bastards, godless monkeys.” PeopleImagineSlaveryHorriblePropagandaConvinceCannibal Author:Femi Kuti
“There are places and spaces for black writers to write about race as a central thing. It's important. We're still dealing with the remnants of slavery. We're still dealing with racism on a daily basis. For me, I choose to write books about black people where we are normal. I was raised to believe that I deserve to be in a room just like anybody else. I try to write books like that.” PeopleWritingTryingBelieveImportantBookBlackRacismDeserveSlaveryBlack People Author:Kwame Alexander
“People speaking into handheld devices while they walk down the street and saying to the device, "I'm walking down the street now." People are enslaved. I was just up in the country for a few days last week and it was great: no television, no telephone, no nothing. I walked through the woods, sat around, smoked. And it was lovely. I think the desire to be free has mutated, and we now live in an era when the slaves celebrate their slavery - this whole corporate concept of being part of a "team" at work.” PeopleThinkingCountryDesireWeekTeamWalkingSlaverySlaveLovelyCelebrateSat Author:Nick Tosches
“Marriage is an institution fits in perfect harmony with the laws of nature; whereas systems of slavery and segregation were designed to brutally oppress people and thereby violated the laws of nature.” PeopleLawPerfectMarriageFitHarmonyInstitutionsSlaverySegregationLaws Of NaturePerfect Harmony Author:Jack Kingston
“We have landowners, small growers. We have people who are holding onto land that was acquired by their families after slavery. They need to produce some of the food we eat, so they can pay the taxes and hold onto the property. Taxes keep going up. We, and by we I mean black people, are rapidly becoming a landless people. Our ancestors, coming out of slavery, acquired more than 15 million acres of land. Today, we're probably down to less than 2 million acres.” PeopleMeanTodayBlackTaxesSlaveryPropertyKeep GoingBlack PeopleAncestorHolding On Author:Shirley Sherrod
“North Korea's sin is that it refuses to surrender, to fall on its knees, to sacrifice its people. It refuses to become a slave. For centuries, European and later US colonialism punished such defiance in the most brutal ways. Western culture is, after all, based and built on slavery. It demands absolute compliance, unconditional submission. If North Korea is attacked, it should fight back! And it will.” PeopleFallCultureFightingSinSacrificeSlaverySlaveWesternSurrenderBrutalSubmissionUnconditionalNorth KoreaDefiance Author:Andre Vltchek
“I think comedy allows people to accept the more difficult parts of history. And history, if it's presented wrong, is just very depressing, particularly the history of slavery. If slavery is presented properly, it's a great story. But I think that within the commercial world of storytelling in which I live, there haven't been many strong works that discuss slavery in ways that are palatable and funny and interesting to the reader.” PeopleThinkingWorldStrongDifficultInterestingAcceptingComedySlaveryStorytellingDepressing Author:James McBride
“There are some really great books that have been written about slavery, but I don't think that the discourse about it in society has been very accurate or healthy. I don't think we've come up with ways to tell it that don't insult people or hit them in the wrong way. Part of the problem is that most people don't really understand what slavery was anyway. Most white people didn't own slaves. Slavery was a way of life, just like driving cars is a way of life now. It doesn't mean that it was right.” PeopleThinkingMeanBookProblemCarHealthySlaverySlaveDrivingInsultReally GreatGreat Book Author:James McBride
“The core cuisine of Southern food is established in the plantation South, within the world of slavery. To understand the plantation table, we must understand the relationship of enslaved people to Africa, to historical trauma, and their central role in food production. Their voice is the most poignant, expressive voice in Southern cuisine.” PeopleWorldSlaveryHistoricalTraumaSouthernPoignant Author:Marcie Cohen Ferris
“Why wouldn't somebody have the same legal rights as everybody else in our society? What is that about? I don't even understand them putting same sex marriage on the ballot. So if fifty-one percent of the people say it shouldn't happen, it's not going to happen? You can get fifty-one percent of the people to say just about anything - to say let's bring back slavery, or all Mexicans should be slaves, or something absolutely crazy like that. Does that mean we do it?” PeopleMeanCrazySlaverySlaveBe A Slave Author:Wayne Dyer
“The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world: two million people. One out of every eight prisoners in the world is an African American. We are warehousing people as a profit to shareholders or for benefits to communities that get to host federal prisons. It is modern slavery. The whole future of America's black community is at risk. One out of every three young black men in Washington, D.C., is under one arm or the other of the criminal justice system. These are the continuing consequences of slavery.” PeopleMenWorldBlackCommunityJusticeRiskModernConsequenceSlaveryPrisonAfrican AmericanPrisonerHostJustice SystemCriminal Justice Author:Randall Robinson
“In one sense, no act of reparation will be satisfactory for those whose lives were so under-valued both as human beings held in slavery and then as human chattel to satisfy the financial indebtedness of a Catholic institution. Nonetheless, the university must also put into place - as it is attempting to do - a program that both admits the horror and error of its past actions and directs its students, faculty, and administrations to an awareness of the dignity of all people, especially those who even today are often considered less than worthy of respect and dignity.” PeopleTodayActionPastAwarenessStudentsHorrorProgramDignityCatholicSlaveryFinancialWorthyDignity And Respect Author:Wilton Daniel Gregory
“Women and LBGT people have the advantage that they are everybody's son, daughter, cousin, nephew, aunt, uncle. They are in a position to change hearts, and you saw it happen actually. African-Americans, not so much. They are separated from the white oppressive population by geography, housing, segregation, centuries of slavery. There is a tremendous wall between black America and white. I would say you open the door with the force of law, and then you can start to change hearts.” PeopleHeartBlackSonWallDaughterSlaveryCousinSegregationAuntGeographyNephew Author:Linda Hirshman
“We need to make sure that our children know different kinds of people, eat different kinds of food, and learn our true history. The way most schools teach history is wrong. If they talk about slavery it's typically just for a couple of days and the lessons almost never address the systems that have hindered people of color for more than 250 years. This has to change.” PeopleKindChildrenDifferentSchoolTeachCoupleOur ChildrenSlaveryDifferent Kinds Author:Christian Picciolini
“Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it. There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally. If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?” PeopleThinkingBookNegativeSlaveryMythHorribleAfrican American Author:John Edgar Wideman
“The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse, we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever.” PeopleMadeRealTodayLastsAmericaNamesGivenTakenMastersSlaverySlaveRefuseDestroyedAcknowledgeRejectsForefathers Author:Malcolm X
“Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.” PeopleMomentsGivenSubjectsSlaverySlaveUnarmed Book:The Huey P. Newton Reader Source: The Huey P. Newton Reader
“The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.” PeopleIfsHas BeensMadeTodayAmericaBornEconomyFateTerribleSlaveryAncestorDescendants Author:Thomas Sowell