Best slavery & race Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Slavery is a condition imposed upon individuals or races not sufficiently able to protect or defend themselves, and so long as a race or people expose themselves to the danger of being weak, no one can tell when they will be reduced to slavery.”

People Long Able Individual Race Conditions Danger Protect Weak Slavery

Book:Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey

Source: Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey

“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 read "Up From Slavery" and then my dream - if I may so call it - of being a race leader dawned.”

Ifs May Dream Literature Race Leader Slavery

Author:Marcus Garvey

“My people had used music to soothe slavery's torment or to propitiate God, or to describe the sweetness of love and the distress of lovelessness, but I knew no race could sing and dance its way to freedom.”

People Way Used Freedom Race Music Slavery Distress Sweetness Torment Lovelessness

Book:The Heart of a Woman

Source: The Heart of a Woman

“Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.”

People Men Should Humans Wells Has Beens Government Born United Race Watches Ought Lessons Slavery Ignorant Human Race Enlightened Over It Divided Awakened Cheated Yoke Born Free

Author:James Madison

“Poor dusky children of slavery, men and women of my own race-the transition from slavery to freedom was too sudden for you! The bright dreams were too rudely dispelled; you were not prepared for the new life that opened before you, and the great masses of the North learned to look upon your helplessness with indifference-learned to speak of you as an idle, dependent race. Reason should have prompted kinder thoughts. Charity is ever kind.”

Source: Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House

“In nothing was slavery so savage and relentless as in its attempted destruction of the family instincts of the Negro race in America. Individuals, not families; shelters, not homes; herding, not marriages, were the cardinal sins in that system of horrors.”

Home America Individual Sin Race Family Horror Destruction Slavery Instinct Shelter Savages Relentless Cardinals Race In America

Author:Fannie Barrier Williams

“...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.”

Men Helping White Race Possibility Draws Slavery South Population Deny Proportion White Man Offspring Furious Fusion

Book:Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839

Source: Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839

“The parallel between antifeminism and race prejudice is striking. The same underlying motives appear to be at work, namely fear, jealousy, feelings of insecurity, fear of economic competition, guilt feelings, and the like. Many of the leaders of the feminist movement in the nineteenth-century United States clearly understood the similarity of the motives at work in antifeminism and race discrimination and associated themselves with the anti slavery movement.”

“Over the centuries, we've moved on from Scripture to accumulate precepts of ethical, legal and moral philosophy. We've evolved a liberal consensus of what we regard as underpinnings of decent society, such as the idea that we don't approve of slavery or discrimination on the grounds of race or sex, that we respect free speech and the rights of the individual. All of these things that have become second nature to our morals today owe very little to religion, and mostly have been won in opposition to the teeth of religion.”

“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.”

Source: Memories and Portraits: Stevenson's Vol. 21

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Men Matter Lasts Nations Race Comfort Fairs Slavery Ice Ruins Cream Ice Cream Cheaper Completion Decoration Robbing Vanilla

Book:The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

“..remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship.”

Remember Race Middle Equal Institutions Slavery Citizenship Middle Ground

Book:The works of James Abram Garfield. (2 Volumes) Volume 2

Source: The works of James Abram Garfield. (2 Volumes) Volume 2

“To have one's race brutally treated for so many years, even after the end of slavery and segregation, people are going to rise up with violence to attain what they believe is rightfully theirs. The most important thing at this time is raising the awareness of everyone; people need to be educated everywhere about all aspects of racism and how it affects people still today.”

People Needs Years Believe Stills Important Ends Today Race Violence Awareness Racism Aspect Slavery Important Things Treated Educated Segregation

Author:Assata Shakur

“A civilization built on dualism and war within and between persons, one that puts its most creative minds and its best engineers to sadistic work building more and more destructive weapons, is no civilization at all. It needs a radical transformation from the heart outwards. It needs to outgrow and outlaw war just as in the last century it outlawed slavery. The human race has outgrown war, but it hardly knows it yet.”

“Because I know that the early Greeks and Romans and the early Europeans at that age did not see racism as we see it now - because racism was created to justify slavery to build the capital for capitalism - and back in the day they respected talent over race. We had an African Pope in the late 5th century, we had an African Emperor of Rome, and early church Fathers were black.”

Knows Age Father Black Church Race Century Talent Late Racism Capitalism Slavery Greek Justify Rome Pope Emperor Back In The Day Church Fathers

Author:Immortal Technique

“Justice Jefferson has a blind spot on race. You know, more than a blind spot. A terrible blemish on his legacy, slavery, for which he's properly excoriated. So, I think [Louis] Brandeis has done this as well.”

Thinking Knows Wells Done Justice Race Terrible Slavery Blind Spots Legacy Blind Spots Louis Brandeis

Author:Jeffrey Rosen

“People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.”

People Race Rights Movement Comfortable Relation Slavery Civil Rights Etc Race Relations Civil Rights Movement

Author:Paul Beatty

“It's impossible to separate our contemporary practice of the death penalty from our history around race and slavery, and specifically, lynching. Where lynchings were happening 100 years ago is where executions are happening today. And that's a haunting and eerie thing.”

Years Today Race Practice Impossible Happenings Years Ago Slavery Contemporary Execution Penalties Haunting Death Penalty Lynching Eerie

Author:Shane Claiborne

“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.”

People Thinking Knows Character Used Black Realizing Race Slavery Denial Racist Rooted Dutch Insensitive

Author:Roger Ross Williams

“If you are going to abolish slavery, that opens up all these other questions: what system of labor is going to replace slave labor? What system of race relations is going to replace the race relations of slavery? Who is going to have power in the post-war South? The Emancipation Proclamation doesn't answer that question, but it throws [it] open.”

Ifs War Answers Race Labor Relation Slavery Slave South Posts Race Relations Emancipation Abolish Proclamation Post War Emancipation Proclamation Slave Labor

Author:Eric Foner

“To take on the question of race in America and believe that you could transform this country so that it would actually be a place that was welcoming for everyone that was here, including dealing with the history of slavery and the kind of oppression this country is based on, that's an amazing moment to begin to find your own political ideals.”

Believe Kind Country Moments America Political Race Ideals Slavery Including Welcome Oppression Race In America

Author:Amber Hollibaugh

“You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.”

World Humans Artist Hate Race Half Liberty Moral Virtue This World Slavery Human Race Moral Virtues

Book:Complete writings: with variant readings

Source: Complete writings: with variant readings

“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”

Mean Doe Ideas Form Passion Race Sacrifice Higher Models Slavery Oneself Free Yourself

Book:Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek

“... and we are not alone in this slavery. there are millions of others throughout the world, of all colors and races and creeds. this we must remember. there are many of our people who hate the poor of the white race, and they hate us. the people in this town living by the river who work in the mills. people who are almost as much in need as we are ourselves. this hatred is a great evil, and no good can ever come from it... the injustice of need must bring us all together and not separate us. we must remember that we all make the things of this earth of value because of labor.”

People World Needs Earth Together Remember Values Hate Evil White Poor Race Millions Color Labor Rivers Hatred Towns Slavery Injustice Creeds Not Alone Mills White Race

Book:The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

“You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world.”

Source: The basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959

“The freedmen were not really free in 1865, nor are most of their descendants really free in 1965. Slavery was but one aspect of a race and color problem that is still far from solution here, or anywhere. In America particularly, the grapes of wrath have not yet yielded all their bitter vintage.”

Stills Problem America Justice Race Color Diversity Solutions Aspect Social Justice Slavery Bitter Bitterness Wrath Grapes Vintage Descendants Race And Color

Book:The Oxford history of the American people

Source: The Oxford history of the American people

“If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation.”

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 1: 1832-1858: Library of America #45

“I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice, for nothing else makes one so blind and narrow.”

Heart Individual Race Habit My Heart Prejudice Slavery Blind Bottom Pity Unfortunate

Author:Booker T. Washington

“I have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children.”

Children Seems Strong Black Natural Memories White Race Opinion Higher Equal Capacity Slavery Apprehension Black Race

Book:A Benjamin Franklin Reader

Source: A Benjamin Franklin Reader

“The atheist realizes that there must not only be an acceptance of his right to hold his opinion, but that ultimately his is the job to turn his culture from religion, to eliminate those irrational ideas which have held the human race in intellectual slavery.”

Humans Ideas Jobs Turns Culture Realizing Race Opinion Acceptance Evolution Intellectual Slavery Atheist Human Race Irrational

Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair

“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

“From the standpoint of modern political science the slave holders were right in declaring that liberty can be given only to those who have political capacity enough to use it, and they were also right in maintaining that two greatly unequal races cannot exist side by side on terms of perfect equality.”

Two Enough Use Political Given Sides Term Perfect Race Liberty Modern Capacity Slavery Slave Maintaining Political Science Standpoint Declaring

Author:Charles Edward Merriam

“I am obliged to confess that I do not regard the abolition of slavery as a means of warding off the struggle of the two races in the Southern states. The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of freemen, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.”

Source: Democracy in America

“I don’t believe it is possible to transcend race in this country. Race is a factor in this society. The legacy of Jim Crow and slavery has not gone away. It is not an accident that African-Americans experience high crime rates, are poor, and have less wealth. It is a direct result of our racial history.”

Believe Country Wealth Poor Results Race Gone Crime Direct Slavery Rate Don't Believe Accidents Factors African American Legacy Crow This Society Jim Crow Gone Away Crime Rates

Author:Barack Obama

“In the Shadow of Slavery covers two and a half centuries of black life in New York City, and skillfully interweaves the categories of race and class as they affected the formation of African American identity. Leslie Harris has made a major contribution to our understanding of the black experience.”

“Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human being to hate another by reason of his race or color. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.”

Men Humans Reason Form Hate Human Beings Race Color Slavery One Man Another Man Degrading

Book:The Booker T. Washington Papers

Source: The Booker T. Washington Papers

“If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, it's Caucasians.”

People Ifs Should Race Slavery Guilt

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“Individuals who have been wronged by unlawful racial discrimination should be made whole; but under our Constitution there can be no such thing as either a creditor or a debtor race. That concept is alien to the Constitution's focus upon the individual. ...To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American.”

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”

“Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

“The American Negro must rebuild his past in order to make his future. Though it is orthodox to think of America as the one country where it is unnecessary to have a past, what is a luxury for the nation as a whole becomes a prime social necessity for the Negro. For him, a group tradition must supply compensation for persecution, and pride of race the antidote for prejudice. History must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generation must repair and offset.”

“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.”

“The prejudice of the race appears stronger in the States that have abolished slaves than in the States where slavery still exists. White carpenters, white bricklayers, and white painters will not work side by side with the blacks in the North but do it in almost every Southern State.”

Stills War States Sides White Race Prejudice Stronger Slavery Slave Painter Civil War Southern Carpenter Bricklayers

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“Arguably the most important parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow is that both have served to define the meaning and significance of race in America. Indeed, a primary function of any racial caste system is to define the meaning of race in its time. Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. That is what it means to be black.”

“Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.”

Law Race Groups Policy Mass Institutions Slavery Defined Customs Crow Subordinates Incarceration Jim Crow Mass Incarceration Jim Crow Laws

Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“I read Norman Lock’s The Boy in His Winter with delight and amazement. Styled in the vernacular of a rapidly changing America, it stays true to the themes of Mark Twain’s original: class relations, race and slavery, childhood innocence, moral hypocrisy—and, of course, the stark beauty and unforgiving nature of America’s greatest river. I finished this absolutely elegant narrative feeling that Huck Finn has never been more alive.”

“Is slavery - owner, victim, profit, and domination - exclusive to the human race? Have blacks, Jews, women and children been the only victims of this atrocity? Have not cows been enslaved? What about pigs, chickens, turkeys, fish, sheep? If they’re not enslaved, then what are they? Free?”

Ifs Humans Children Race Victim Slavery Fishes Profit Jew Human Race Owners Chickens Cows Sheep Pigs Domination Turkeys Exclusive Atrocities

Author:Gary Yourofsky

“With education symmetrical and true we will take the dead mass buried by slavery's hand and touch them to life. This beauteous angel, which has always done its work for those on earth, will roll away the stone from the tomb where is buried a race, and my people will come forth to their glory and the amazement of the world.”

People World Done Hands Earth Freedom Race Liberty Mass Glory Angel Stones Slavery Buried Tombs Amazement Symmetrical

Author:William Tecumseh Vernon

“The blacks of this region are a cheerful, careless, dirty, race, not hard worked, and in many respects indulgently treated. It is of course the desire of the master that his slaves shall be laborious; on the other hand it is the determination of the slave to lead as easy a life as he can. The master has the power of punishment on his side; the slave, on his, has invincible inclination, and a thousand expedients learned by long practice... Good natured though imperfect and slovenly obedience on one side, is purchased by good treatment on the other.”

Slavery Quotes

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Slavery Quotes