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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“What the working man sells is not directly his Labor, but his Laboring Power, the temporary disposal of which he makes over to the capitalist. This is so much the case that I do not know whether by the English Law, but certainly by some Continental Laws, the maximum time is fixed for which a man is allowed to sell his laboring power. If allowed to do so for any indefinite period whatever, slavery would be immediately restored. Such a sale, if it comprised his lifetime, for example, would make him at once the lifelong slave of his employer.”

Ifs Knows Men Would Be Law Work Cases Example Periods Labor Slavery Sells Slave Lifetime Fixed Temporary Capitalist Maximum Employers Lifelong Working Man Continental English Law

Book:German socialist philosophy

Source: German socialist philosophy

“It was that period in the vernal quarter when we may suppose the Dryads to be waking for the season. The vegetable world begins to move and swell and the saps to rise, till in the completest silence of lone gardens and trackless plantations, where everything seems helpless and still after the bond and slavery of frost, there are bustlings, strainings, united thrusts, and pulls-all-together, in comparison with which the powerful tugs of cranes and pulleys in a noisy city are but pigmy efforts.”

Source: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (British Classics Series): Historical Romance Novel

“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.”

War Enough Facts Interest Arms Needed Periods Army Institutions Slavery Unions Slave South Proof Saved Cents Eighty Laying Down

Book:Reminiscences of the Civil War

Source: Reminiscences of the Civil War

“What I'm slowly realizing is that I believe that most of us felt that we could relax a little bit after November 2, 2008, because of the progress and the spirit that it took to get Barack Obama in The White House. And what we didn't realize, is that was really the beginning. That was really the beginning of the struggle and not the end of a struggle, to come from colonial times through slavery, through the Jim Crowe Laws, through the civil rights period to The White House as, like a point A/point B journey. Point B of course being the end.”

“I've been reading about and writing about the Civil War period and it is so striking that slavery was never made right - [Abraham] Lincoln was killed, Reconstruction came along, and all of that inequity was frozen in place and carried forward rather smugly. So I think the burden is now upon us white people, to say that this systemic inequality offends us.”

People Thinking Writing Made War Reading White Periods Slavery Burden Inequality Civil War Frozen Abraham Reconstruction

Author:George Saunders

“As legal slavery passed, we entered into a permanent period of unemployment and underemployment from which we have yet to emerge.”

Periods Slavery Slave Permanent Unemployment Be A Slave Underemployment

Book:A time to speak, a time to act: the movement in politics

Source: A time to speak, a time to act: the movement in politics

“Fourth period I have "life skills", which is what they call gym when you're old enough to be offended by forced physical activity (Elody thinks they should call it slavery instead, for accuracy).”

Thinking Should Enough Periods Activity Skills Slavery Gym Fourth Offended Accuracy Physical Activity Life Skills

Book:Before I Fall

Source: Before I Fall

“Slavery may, perhaps, be best compared to the infantile disease of measles; a complaint which so commonly attacks the young of humanity in their infancy, and when gone through at that period leaves behind it so few fatal marks; but which when it normally attacks the fully developed adult becomes one of the most virulent and toxic of diseases, often permanently poisoning the constitution where it does not end in death.”

May Doe Ends Young Humanity Behinds Gone Periods Disease Adults Constitution Mark Slavery Toxic Complaints Infancy Poisoning Infantile Measles

Author:Olive Schreiner

“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”

“We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.”

Men Made Color Periods Slavery Mere Distinction Enlightened Dominion Constitutional Convention

Book:The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

Source: The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution

“All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the present wretched race of slaves. The only possible step that could be taken towards it by the convention was to fix a period after which they should not be imported.”

Men Should Wish Race Steps Taken Periods Safety Slavery Slave Good Man Lasting Conventions Wretched Abolition Abolition Of Slavery

Author:Oliver Ellsworth

“Life has been reduced to a series of long periods of boredom in the office punctuated by high-octane "experiences" which you can rack up on your list of things to do before you die. That's not really living: that is slavery with the occasional circus thrown in.”

Long Has Beens Dies Periods Office Slavery Series Lists Bored Things To Do Boredom Thrown Circus Occasional Racks Really Living

Book:Brave Old World: A Month-by-Month Guide to Husbandry, or the Fine Art of Looking After Yourself

Source: Brave Old World: A Month-by-Month Guide to Husbandry, or the Fine Art of Looking After Yourself

“The middle of 'America's Women' is about the Civil War, and how women, black and white, confronted slavery and abolition. As in every other period of crisis, the rules of sexual decorum were suspended due to emergency.”

War America Black White Middle Periods Crisis Slavery Dues Civil War Black And White Emergencies Abolition Suspended Decorum

Book:America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines

Source: America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines

“Many Southern Plantation owners were working towards the day when they could convert their investment to more profitable industrial production as had been done in the North, and others felt that freemen who were paid wages would be more efficient than slaves who had no incentive to work. For the present, however, they were stuck with the system they inherited. They felt that a complete and sudden abolition of slavery with no transition period would destroy their economy and leave many of the former slaves to starve - all of which actually happened in due course.”

“I think slavery was an awful, awful period in our history, but when I look at what's become of black culture since emancipation, I think you have to admit, maybe the Confederacy was on to something”

Thinking Looks Culture Black Periods Slavery Awful Emancipation Black Culture

Author:Zach Braff

“It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.”

Form Half Century Creation Periods Slavery African American 20th Century Inheritance Present Day American English

Author:William Labov

“Slavery as an institution that degraded man to a thing has never died out. In some periods of history it has flourished: many civilizations have climbed to power and glory on the backs of slaves. In other times slaves have dwindled in number and economic importance. But never has slavery disappeared.”

Men Numbers Economic Periods Civilization Glory Importance Died Institutions Slavery Slave

Book:Slavery

Source: Slavery

“Childhood may have periods of great happiness, but it also has times that must simply be endured. Childhood at its best is a form of slavery tempered by affection.”

May Form Childhood Periods Slavery Affection Great Happiness

Book:Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre

Source: Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre

“I excavate history. I look at lives buried under too much silence. Periods of time, like slavery, have to be revisited, reimagined, so we can move through them.”

Looks Moving Silence Too Much Periods Slavery Buried

Author:Yusef Komunyakaa