Quotessence
Home / Topics / Slavery Quotes

Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Related topics

SlaveMenPeopleIfsWarThinkingStatesHumansLibertyWorldBlackCivil WarMayShouldCountryWayChildrenAmericaFormKnowsLongHas BeensMastersBe A SlaveGovernmentMadeFreedomNationsPoliticalLawMeanStillsWhiteAbolitionRightsEvilWantInstitutionsKindLaborMoralYearsBelieveRaceTodayDoeGivingJusticeLooksMindFactsFirstsTwoAfrican AmericanFightingModernWholeEndsHandsSouthFeelsIdeasIndividualRacismSocialUnitedAbolition Of SlaveryConstitutionNeedsPersonsPrinciplesSelfChainsPropertyCausesCulturePovertyWishAnimalCenturyNamesUnionsWellsAmerican SlaveryBondageConditionsDesireDifferentIgnoranceIssuesOppressionSinBookDoneHumanityMightReasonRepublicanSegregationTogethermore

Slavery Quotes

“I'm not pessimistic, because poor people tend to bounce back. We've been through worse than this - working people been through worse than this. We've got slavery and Jim Crow. We've got workers with no rights up until `35. We're going to bounce back. We are resilient, resisting people. So, it's not pessimism, but it is blues-like. It's not optimistic. We're just prisoners of hope, that's all.”

PeoplePoorRightsSlaveryWorkersOptimisticPessimismPrisonerPoor PeopleCrowPessimisticResistingResilientBounceJim Crow
Author:Cornel West
Create image

“In America, you can segregate the people, but the problems will travel. From slavery to equal rights, from state suppression of dissent to crime, drugs and unemployment, I can't think of a supposedly Black issue that hasn't wasted the original Black target group and then spread like measles to outlying white experience.”

PeopleThinkingI CanStatesProblemAmericaBlackWhiteIssuesRightsGroupsCrimeDrugEqualOriginalsSlaverySpreadTargetUnemploymentSegregationEqual RightsDissentSuppressionMeasles
Book:On call: political essays
Create image

“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.”

CharacterBodyPoliticalReligionChurchReligiousViewsStepsRightsMetsDemandSlaveryPropertyEducationalResistanceBitterOppositionWomens RightsEvery StepReligious FreedomTemperanceClergyKindredExponentsAnti SlaveryPolitical EqualityPersonal Rights
Author:Matilda Joslyn Gage
Create image

“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.”

PeopleIfsNeedsStillsRunningEvilOpinionDemocracyRightsMediaConscienceVoteAccountsSlaveryMajorityNotionPopulationMinoritiesRequirementsPublic OpinionManipulateFlawedDemocracies HaveEvil PeopleMajority RuleMajority Vote
Author:Howard Zinn
Create image

“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.”

LittlesHas BeensIdeasPhilosophyTodayIndividualSexRaceMoralRightsAtheismCenturySpeechRegardSlaveryMovedPositive AtheismScriptureDiscriminationTeethDecentOppositionEthicalFree SpeechConsensusMoved OnMoral Philosophy
Author:Richard Dawkins
Create image

“The presence of the blacks is the greatest evil that threatens the United States. They increase, in the Gulf States, faster than do the whites. They cannot be kept for ever in slavery, since the tendencies of the modern world run strongly the other way. They cannot be absorbed into the white population, for the whites will not intermarry with them, not even in the North where they have been free for two generations. Once freed, they would be more dangerous than now, because they would not long submit to be debarred from political rights. A terrible struggle would ensue.”

WorldWayLongHas BeensTwoStatesWould BeRunningPoliticalEvilWhiteUnitedUnited StatesStruggleRightsGenerationsModernDangerousTerribleIncreaseSlaveryPopulationTendenciesFasterSubmitModern WorldPolitical Rights
Author:James Bryce
Create image

“Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men havethe same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated: his title to himself is as perfect now, as is that of Lyman Beecher: it is stamped on his moral being, and is, like it, imperishable.”

MenHumansMayGrowsHuman BeingsPerfectMoralRightsMoralitySlaverySlaveHuman RightsTitles
Author:Angelina Grimke
Create image

“The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says: "You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires."”

WorldSelfDesirePowerfulRichRightsLateDestructionSlaverySatisfyingConsumerismReignSelf DestructionOverconsumption
Book:GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
Create image

“For centuries, faith has helped us overcome problems and helped us work to achieve a more perfect union. It has inspired the many leaders who played a key role in abolishing slavery, protecting civil rights and, hopefully one day, becoming a nation where all life from conception to natural death is protected.”

ProblemNationsNaturalPerfectLeaderRolesRightsAchieveCenturyKeysBecomingOne DayOvercomingSlaveryUnionsInspiredCivil RightsHopefullyConceptionProtectedNatural DeathAbolishing Slavery
Author:Marco Rubio
Create image

“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.”

MayPersonsTwoStatesUseGovernmentLastsRememberFormThreeLibertyPrinciplesDemocracyRightsSecurityMastersBasesAbsolutesFoundationSlaveryPropertySlaveCivil RightsPrimariesIncapablePrivate PropertyPersonal LibertyPersonal Security
Book:A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia
Create image

“Many heroic things happened during slavery. And remember that there was a national movement away from it even at the time. The era of Reconstruction and then the subsequent dismantling of Reconstruction sent us in a tailspin. Then we had the Civil Rights movement. Now we have our first non-white president. We have a pattern of moving apart and then coming back together throughout the history of this country. Each time, we come closer.”

FirstsCountryTogetherRememberMovingPresidentWhiteRightsHappenedMovementSlaveryPatternsThings HappenCivil RightsErasHeroicComing BackCivil Rights MovementBack TogetherReconstruction
Author:Wynton Marsalis
Create image

“My crime is that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is that when I say that freedom is of God and slavery is of the devil, I mean just what I say. My fanaticism is that I insist on the American people abolishing slavery, or ceasing to prate on the rights of man.”

PeopleMenMeanEvilRightsCrimeDevilSlaveryMultitudesFanaticismSingularityAbolishing Slavery
Book:No Compromise with Slavery: An Address Delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, February 14, 1854
Create image

“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.”

BelieveLittlesEndsLawSpiritCoursesHouseI BelieveFeltBitsRealizingWhiteStruggleRightsProgressJourneyPeriodsLittle BitSlaveryCivil RightsBarackRelaxWhite HouseNovemberJim CrowColonial Times
Author:Questlove
Create image

“The Fourteenth Amendment, after the civil war, in principle brought former slaves into the category of persons, theoretically. But if you actually look, almost all the cases brought up for personal rights under the Fourteenth Amendment were by corporations. Freed slaves couldn't do it. In fact they were pretty much driven back into something like slavery by a north - south compact, that allowed former slave states to criminalize black life, which made a criminal force that was basically used as a forced labor force, up until the 1930s.”

IfsLooksPersonsMadeWarStatesFactsUsedForceBlackPrinciplesCasesRightsLaborSlaverySlaveSouthDrivenCriminalsFormerCorporationsCivil WarCategoriesAmendments1930sCompactBlack LivesLabor ForcePersonal RightsFourteenth Amendment
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“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
Create image

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

LifeFeelsHumorStrongPresidentFreedomRightsAngerSocial JusticeSlaverySlaveHuman RightsArguingImpulsePresidentialCivil WarPatrioticExpress YourselfAmerican Civil WarAbolitionBe A SlaveRights And FreedomsAmerican PresidentUs PresidentAbolitionistSlave TradeGreat PresidentsHuman Rights DayAmerican SlaverySlavery In AmericaStates RightsUs PresidentialAbolition Of SlaverySlave LaborSlavery FreedomPersonal RightsEconomic Slavery
Author:Abraham Lincoln
Create image

“If no one had ever challenged religious authority, there’d be no democracy, no public schools, women’s rights, improvements to science and medicine, evolution of slavery and no laws against child abuse or spousal abuse. I was afraid to challenge my religious beliefs because that was the basis of creation—mine anyway. I was afraid to question the Bible or anything in it, and when I did, that’s when I became involved with PFLAG and realized that my son was a perfectly normal human being and there was nothing for God to heal because Bobby was perfect just the way he was.”

IfsWayHumansChildrenSchoolLawBeliefChallengesReligiousHuman BeingsPerfectDemocracyRightsCreationMinesSonEvolutionInvolvedAuthorityNormalAbuseBasesSlaveryMedicineImprovementHealMy SonChild AbuseWomens RightsPublic SchoolReligious BeliefPerfectly Normal
Author:Mary Griffith
Create image

“I am now speaking of rights under the Constitution, and not of moral or religious rights. I do not discuss the morals of the people of Missouri, but let them settle that matter for themselves. I hold that the people of the slaveholding States are civilized men as well as ourselves, that they bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God and their posterity and not to us. It is for them to decide therefore the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves within their own limits.”

PeopleMenWellsMatterStatesReligiousMoralRightsBearsLimitsConscienceConstitutionSlaverySettlingAbortionCivilizedPosterityMissouriReligious Rights
Author:Stephen A. Douglas
Create image

“Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights - the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle.”

PeopleHumansLibertyRightsEconomicGunEmpowermentEconomicsSlaveryListsWelfareExpandingHousingEmpoweredEntitlementCattleDependencyBarnsHayBosniaRations
Author:P. J. O'Rourke
Create image

“Is it not amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty-that in such an age and in such a country we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to liberty?”

MenCountryAgeHumanityLibertyPrinciplesRightsUnderstoodSlaveryDefinedGentleGenerousDestructiveHumaneFind MePrecisionInconsistentAdopting
Book:Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries
Create image

“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.”

HumansPersonsNationsUnderstandingLordOpinionRightsSubjectsTalentColorEqualDegreesSlaveryPropertySuperiorsHopefulEstablishmentNewtonIsaacHuman Family
Book:Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts
Create image

“The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition, that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.”

UseRightsCrisisSlaverySlaveCustomsSubmitArbitraryImposition
Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799: prepared under the direction of the United States George Washington bicentennial commission and published by authority of Congress
Create image

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce...”

PeopleMenShouldHumansPersonsWarChristianLibertyRightsHuman NatureKingsNegativeSlaverySacredDeterminedPracticalsMiserableBritainCommerceWarfareOffendedTransportationDeclaration Of IndependenceGreat BritainInfidelHemisphereCaptivatingE CommerceSuppressing
Author:Thomas Jefferson
Create image

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.”

MenGovernmentPainCasesRightsSubjectsVoteElectionSlaveryPrimariesVotingProtectedRepresentatives
Book:THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…
Create image

“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.”

IfsMayMeanLongTwoWarStatesShowsLevelsRaceEnemyStruggleRightsRacismRegardSlaverySlaveRaisedComplainingCivil RightsSouthernDeprivedObligedRevoltAbolitionFreemanAbolition Of Slavery
Book:Democracy in America
Create image

“If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.”

IfsMenHas BeensMadeFeelingsGovernmentWould BeTogetherLibertyGreaterRightsDegreesSlaveryBillsNeighborContraryRidiculousPreservationBill Of Rights
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State
Create image

“It had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.”

IfsWellsCountryDoneEnjoyResultsCommonRightsSonSlaveryEsteemChainsPlentyIf I CouldInjuryMutualCall MePrivate LifePosterityInvadersForging
Author:Nathanael Greene
Create image

“The great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights... not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression, but also for enthusiastic justifications for slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, and genocide... Moreover, religion enshrined hierarchy, authority, and inequality... It was the age of equality that brought about the disappearance of such religious appurtenances as the auto-da-fe and burning at the stake.”

HumansChildrenAgeReligionReligiousPovertyRightsAuthoritySlaveryHuman RightsOppressionInequalityBurningIndifferenceTortureGenocideStakesJustificationExploitationPersecutionHierarchyEnthusiasticAbandonmentNotableSmall ChildDisappearanceAcquiescenceGreat ReligiousBurning At The Stake
Author:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Create image

“Justice needs money; it always has . . . whether for abolition of slavery and early women's rights movements or the civil rights and environmental drives of our generation.”

NeedsJusticeRightsGenerationsMovementSlaveryEnvironmentalCivil RightsHumanistWomens RightsAbolitionOur GenerationNeed MoneyAbolition Of Slavery
Book:Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State
Create image

“The systematic, wanton, and long continued agitation of the slavery question, with the actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States and a portion of their people, upon the well-defined constitutional rights of the Southern citizens; the rapid growth and increase, in all the elements of power, of a purely sectional party.”

PeopleWellsLongWarStatesGrowthPartyRightsCitizensElementsIncreaseSlaveryDefinedCivil WarSouthernPortionsAggressionThreatenedRapidsSystematicAgitationWantonConstitutional RightsRapid Growth
Author:Isham G. Harris
Create image