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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“If we do not restore the Institution of Property we cannot escape restoring the Institution of Slavery; there is no third course.”

Ifs Courses Thirds Institutions Slavery Property Restoring

Book:The Servile State

Source: The Servile State

“When the mass of families in a State are without property, then those who were once citizens become virtually slaves. The more the State steps in to enforce conditions of security and sufficiency; the more it regulates wages, provides compulsory insurance, doctoring, education, and in general takes over the lives of the wage-earners, for the benefit of the companies and men employing the wage-earners, the more is this condition of semi-slavery accentuated.”

Men States Wisdom Politics Company Steps Economy Conditions Security Citizens Benefits Mass Slavery Property Slave Liberalism Wages Sufficiency Compulsory Employing Doctoring

Author:Hilaire Belloc

“The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.”

Source: Churchill: The Power of Words

“It has not been without bitter resistance by the clergy that woman's property and educational rights have advanced. Woman's anti-slavery work, her temperance work, her demand for personal rights, for political equality, for religious freedom and every step of kindred character has met with opposition from the church as a body and from the clergy as exponents of its views.”

“And there is no difference, in principle - but only in degree - between political and chattel slavery. The former, no less than the latter, denies a man's ownership of himself and the products of his labor; and asserts that other men may own him, and dispose of him and his property, for their uses, and at their pleasure.”

Men May Use Political Differences Pleasure Principles Products Degrees Labor Slavery Property Deny Former Latter Ownership

Book:Individualist anarchist pamphlets

Source: Individualist anarchist pamphlets

“If one were to ask. . ."What is slavery?" and I should answer in one word, "murder," my meaning would be understood at once. Why, then, to this other question: "What is property?" may I not likewise answer, "theft". . .?”

Ifs Should May Would Be Asks Answers Understood Murder Slavery Property One Word Theft

Author:Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

“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.”

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

“The subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent.”

Men Said Subjects Slavery Property Dull Eloquent

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

“Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.”

Source: Two Treatises of Government: With a Supplement, Patriarcha, by Robert Filmer

“Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty. It denotes that he is a subject to government, indeed, but that, as he has some property, he cannot himself be the property of a master.”

Persons Government Pay Liberty Subjects Masters Taxes Slavery Property Badges

Book:An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

Source: An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

“Civil rights, as we may remember, are reducible to three primary heads; the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property. In a state of slavery, the two last are wholly abolished, the person of the slave being at the absolute disposal of his master; and property, what he is incapable, in that state, either of acquiring, or holding, in his own use. Hence, it will appear how perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a democracy, which form the basis and foundation of our government.”

Source: A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia

“It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”

People Persons Done Law Used Easy Liberty Degrees Benefits Independence Slavery Property Oppression Proportion Legislators Plunder Personal Independence

Author:Frederic Bastiat

“Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.”

Thinking Hands Christian Pieces Citizens Slavery Property Chains Pagan Ballots Wrists American Citizens

Book:Papers: The Autobiographical Writings

Source: Papers: The Autobiographical Writings

“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.”

People Mean Today Black Taxes Slavery Property Keep Going Black People Ancestor Holding On

Author:Shirley Sherrod

“The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists in this: In the former state a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person or by his representative; in the latter, he is governed by the will of another. In the one case, his life and property are his own; in the other, they depend upon the pleasure of his master. It is easy to discern which of these two states is preferable.”

Men Persons Two States Law Given Easy Pleasure Liberty Cases Masters Depends Slavery Property Former Distinction Latter Representatives Consent

Book:The Official and Other Papers ...

Source: The Official and Other Papers ...

“An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property in a slave in not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it.”

Shows Constitution Slavery Property Slave Inspection

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.”

Men Ideas Constitution Slavery Property Conventions

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

“It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted on by our laws, and have an interest in our laws. They may be considered as making a part, though a degraded part, of the families to which they belong.”

People Should Humans May Character Home Light Law Humanity Interest Justice Human Beings Fine Slavery Property Mere Dues

Book:Selected Writings of James Madison

Source: Selected Writings of James Madison

“The laws of certain states . . . give an ownership in the service of Negroes as personal property . . . . But being men, by the laws of God and nature, they were capable of acquiring liberty - and when the captor in war . . . thought fit to give them liberty, the gift was not only valid, but irrevocable.”

Men Giving War States Law Certain Liberty Fit Capable Slavery Property Ownership Being Me Irrevocable God And Nature

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“But whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re- establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family.”

Source: Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts

“Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.”

Source: Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings

“If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man; its origin was Divine decree.”

Ifs Men Doe Action Law Sin Common Existence Divine Slavery Property Consent Decree Common Law

Author:Jefferson Davis

“The slave frees himself when, of all the relations of private property, he abolishes only the relation of slavery and thereby becomes a proletarian; the proletarian can free himself only by abolishing private property in general.”

Relation Slavery Property Slave Private Property Abolish

Book:The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document

Source: The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document

“Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves.”

Ifs Has Beens States Together United Constitution Regard Slavery Property Unions Species Obligation Recognition Enjoyed Formation Confederation

Author:Jefferson Davis

“At times some people use force or fraud to take from others without willful, voluntary consent. Normally, the initiation of force to take life is murder, to take liberty is slavery, and to take property is theft. It is the same whether these actions are done by one person acting alone, by the many acting against a few, or even by officials with fine hats and titles.”

People Persons Done Use Action Life Is Force Freedom Acting Liberty Fine Murder Slavery Property Titles Officials Hats Fraud Consent Theft Initiation Organized Crime White Collar Crime

Author:Ken Schoolland

“Human beings are not property. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude' - ring true.”

“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

“Man is either governed by his own laws - freedom - or the laws of another - slavery. Are you willing to become slaves? Will you give up your freedom, your life and your property without a single struggle? No man has a right to rule over his fellow creatures.”

Men Giving Law Freedom Struggle Willing Creatures Giving Up Fellows Slavery Property Slave Your Freedom

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“Each man has an equal social right to multiply his power of motion by all the social factors of civilization. Private property in any of these factors is inconsistent with this fundamental right; it must, obviously, prove a source of economic despotism and industrial slavery.”

Men Social Economic Source Civilization Prove Equal Fundamentals Slavery Property Factors Tyrants Despotism Private Property Inconsistent

Author:Daniel De Leon

“The choice lies between property on the one hand and slavery, public or private, on the other. There is no third issue.”

Hands Lying Choices Issues Thirds Slavery Property

Book:An Essay on the Restoration of Property

Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property

“If the Pentateuch is not inspired in its astronomy, geology, geography, history or philosophy, if it is not inspired concerning slavery, polygamy, war, law, religious or political liberty, or the rights of men, women and children, what is it inspired in, or about? The unity of God?—that was believed long before Moses was born. Special providence?—that has been the doctrine of ignorance in all ages. The rights of property?—theft was always a crime. The sacrifice of animals?—that was a custom thousands of years before a Jew existed. The sacredness of life?—there have always been laws against murder. The wickedness of perjury?—truthfulness has always been a virtue. The beauty of chastity?—the Pentateuch does not teach it. Thou shalt worship no other God?—that has been the burden of all religions.”

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”

Source: The River War