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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

Slavery Quotes

“This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”

“True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased.”

War Peace Slavery Occasions Permanent

Author:Gerrit Smith

“Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable War of one portion of its citizens upon another portion; the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute extermination; in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence.”

Source: The Public Life of Capt. John Brown, with an Auto-biography of His Childhood and Youth

“Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.”

Made War Modern Slavery Slave Debt Imposing Old Time

Book:Ezra Pound Speaking

Source: Ezra Pound Speaking

“I can not but hate the prospect of slavery's expansion. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity.”

“We are not one people. We are two peoples. We are a people for Freedom and a people for Slavery. Between the two, conflict is inevitable.”

People Two War Conflict Slavery Inevitable Civil War

Author:Horace Greeley

“[John Brown's] zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light, his was as the burning sun... I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave.”

People May War Ends Light Government Dies Force Causes Sun Land Events Mines Logic Slavery Slave Refuse Superiors Burning Civil War Brown Zeal Inexorable John Brown

Author:Frederick Douglass

“The South was at the point where the scale was tipping against slavery. It was slowly dawning on the plantation owners that slave labor was not economic, besides being morally wrong. Slavery was destined to be abolished, whether for economic reasons or moral reasons matters not, but the international intriguers were not going to wait for voluntary abolition to rob them of their trump card.”

War Matter Reason Waiting Moral Economic Trump Labor Slavery Slave South International Scales Cards Civil War Owners Destined Abolition Tipping Plantations Slave Labor

Author:John Coleman

“There were 315,000 slave owners in the Union Army (with 200,000 in the Confederate Army) and the men who walked away from the Union Army were adamantly opposed to freeing slaves. We cite these facts and recorded statistics to point out that the principal cause of the war was not the issue of slavery.”

Men War Facts Causes Issues He Man Army Slavery Unions Slave Civil War Owners Statistics Principal Confederate Citing Slave Owners

Author:John Coleman

“The Civil War was started over economic issues, not slavery. The War was not popular in the North until the issue of slavery was added at a later time to turn it into a moral crusade.”

War Turns Moral Issues Economic Slavery Civil War Crusades Economic Issues

Author:G. Edward Griffin

“Converting the war into an antislavery crusade was a brilliant move on Lincoln's part, and it resulted in a surge of voluntary recruits into the Union army. But this did not last. Northerners may have disapproved of slavery in the South but, once the bloodletting began in earnest, their willingness to die for that conviction began to wane. [...] Lincoln faced the embarrassing reality that he soon would have no army to carry on the crusade.”

May War Reality Lasts Moving Dies Army Slavery Unions South Conviction Brilliant Civil War Willingness Embarrassing Earnest Crusades Converting Recruit Northerners Bloodletting

Author:G. Edward Griffin

“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.”

“If Lincoln's primary goal in the War was not the abolition of slavery but simply to preserve the Union, the question arises: Why did the Union need preserving? Or, more pointedly, why did the Southern states want to secede?”

Ifs Want Needs War States Goal Slavery Unions Arise Primaries Preserves Civil War Southern Abolition Abolition Of Slavery

Author:G. Edward Griffin

“[...] it is generally accepted that the Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery. That, at best, is a half-truth. Slavery was an issue, but the primary force for war was a clash between the economic interests of the North and the South. Even the issue of slavery itself was based on economics.”

War Force Interest Half Issues Economic Economics Slavery South Accepted Primaries Civil War Clash Half Truth

Author:G. Edward Griffin

“The Compromise of 1850 provided that the prohibition of slavery should be left up to the individual States, thus thwarting the Canaanites in their attempts to make this problem an excuse for federal intervention and a cause of war between the States.”

Should War States Problem Individual Left Causes Slavery Excuse Compromise Civil War Intervention Prohibition Causes Of War

Author:Eustace Mullins

“I want Cuba . . . I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason for the planting and spreading of slavery.”

Want Two War States Reason Slavery Civil War Mexican Cuba Confederate

Author:Albert G. Brown

“There is not a respectable system of civilization known to history whose foundations were not laid in the institution of domestic slavery.”

War Known Civilization Institutions Foundation Slavery Civil War Respectable

Author:Robert M. T. Hunter

“African slavery is the corner-stone of the industrial, social, and political fabric of the South; and whatever wars against it, wars against her very existence. Strike down the institution of African slavery and you reduce the South to depopulation and barbarism.”

War Political Social Existence Stones Institutions Slavery South Corners Strikes Civil War Fabric Barbarism Depopulation

Author:Laurence M. Keitt

“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.”

“Mr. President, the cause of this great discontent in the country, the cause of the evils which we now suffer and which we now fear, originates chiefly from questions growing out of the respective rights of the different States and the unfortunate subject of slavery.”

Different War Country States Suffering Evil Causes President Growing Rights Subjects Slavery Civil War Unfortunate Discontent

Author:John J. Crittenden

“Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery . . . is his natural and normal condition.”

“If slaves will make good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”

Ifs War Whole Theory Slavery Slave Soldier Civil War Good Soldiers Us Civil War

Author:Howell Cobb

“I say, then, that viewed from that standpoint, there is but one single subject of complaint which Virginia has to make against the government under which we live; a complaint made by the whole South, and that is on the subject of African slavery.”

Made War Whole Government Subjects Slavery South Civil War Complaints Virginia Standpoint

Author:John Brown Baldwin

“But, sir, the great cause of complaint now is the slavery question, and the questions growing out of it. If there is any other cause of complaint which has been influential in any quarter, to bring about the crisis which is now upon us; if any State or any people have made the troubles growing out of this question, a pretext for agitation instead of a cause of honest complaint, Virginia can have no sympathy whatever, in any such feeling, in any such policy, in any such attempt. It is the slavery question. Is it not so?”

People Ifs Has Beens Made War States Feelings Causes Growing Trouble Honest Policy Crisis Slavery Civil War Quarters Complaints Influential Virginia Pretext Agitation No Sympathy

Author:John Brown Baldwin

“The defence of human liberty against the aggressions of despotic power have been always the most efficient in States where domestic slavery was to prevail.”

Humans Has Beens War States Liberty Slavery Civil War Efficient Aggression Defence

Author:John C. Calhoun

“Sir, I do firmly believe that domestic slavery, regulated as ours is, produces the highest toned, the purest, best organization of society that has ever existed on the face of the earth.”

Believe War Earth Faces Produce Highest Organization Slavery Civil War Regulation Planters

Book:Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond: Of South Carolina

Source: Selections from the Letters and Speeches of the Hon. James H. Hammond: Of South Carolina

“The moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject slavery, it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood.”

Source: Remarks of Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the Question of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia

“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.”

“Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations.”

War Hours Police Slavery Locals Civil War Regulation

Book:The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Source: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

“My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.”

War Struggle Slavery Unions Objectives Civil War Paramount

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said "Think" The many have said "Believe!"”

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family- which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars and depressions- began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to “help.””

Wells Kind Made War Helping Government Black Poverty Evidence Program Slavery Moved Spending Discrimination All Kinds Welfare Assumption Survived Federal Government Taxpayers Black Family

Author:Thomas Sowell

“When you consider that God could have commanded anything he wanted--anything!--the Ten [Commandments] have got to rank as one of the great missed moral opportunities of all time. How different history would have been had he clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny, taking over other people's countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife-beating, stoning, treating women--or anyone--as chattel or inferior beings.”

“More is spent in a single month [in the U.S.] fighting the war on drugs than all monies ever expended domestically or internationally fighting slavery from its inception. Per month, we spend more on the drug war than we ever have trying to free slaves.”

Trying War Fighting Months Drug Slavery Slave War On Drugs Inception

Author:Mira Sorvino

“The Civil War was about a lot of things, but the core of it was slavery. That was the original sin.”

War Sin Originals Slavery Core Civil War Original Sin

Author:John Fund

“Long live the liberation of the workers off all countries from the infernal chasm of war, exploitation and slavery!”

Long War Country Slavery Workers Liberation Exploitation Chasms

Author:Karl Liebknecht

“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

“We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them, and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.”

War Shows Slavery Slave Civil War Bondage Emancipation Proclamation

Author:William H. Seward

“It is said slavery is all we are fighting for, and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pretense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties.”

Ifs Giving Said War Government Form Fighting Liberty Enemy Rights Military Giving Up Slavery Deny Civil War Superiority Pretense Forms Of Government Confederate Depriving

Author:Patrick Cleburne

“I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District of Columbia.”

Littles War Slavery Civil War Uneasy Columbia

Book:Lincoln on Lincoln

Source: Lincoln on Lincoln

“The war...must go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks...unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence,and that, or extermination, we WILL have.”

Men War Self Government Lasts Fall Fighting Generations Goes On Independence Slavery Track Acknowledge Civil War This Generation Self-government Extermination

Author:Jefferson Davis

“Slavery can never be abolished.”

War Slavery Civil War

Book:Remarks of Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the Question of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia

Source: Remarks of Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the Question of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia

“Slavery has become so engrafted into the policy of the Southern States, that it cannot be eradicated without tearing up by the roots their happiness, tranquillity, and prosperity.”

War States Policy Roots Slavery Prosperity Civil War Southern Tranquillity

Author:William Loughton Smith

“We do not by any means think it desirable that the kingdom of righteousness and peace should be established on earth (because under any circumstances it would be the kingdom of the profoundest mediocrity and Chinaism); we rejoice in all men, who like ourselves love danger, war and adventure, who do not make compromises, nor let themselves be captured, conciliated and stunted; we count ourselves among the conquerors; we ponder over the need of a new order of things, even of a new slavery for every strengthening and elevation of the type "man" also involves a new form of slavery.”

Source: The Joyful Wisdom

“Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic.”

Made War Failing Slavery Brown Republic American Slavery John Brown

Book:Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn

Source: Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn

“My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?”

Long Stills Two War Voice Slavery Debate Senate

Book:The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: Poems on several occasions. Poemata. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals, especially in relation to the Latin and Greek poets. Remarks on several parts of Italy, in the years 1701, 1702, 1703

Source: The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: Poems on several occasions. Poemata. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals, especially in relation to the Latin and Greek poets. Remarks on several parts of Italy, in the years 1701, 1702, 1703

“So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished.”

War Slavery Engaging

Author:Robert E. Lee

“Forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history. Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark... In the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.”

War Choices Evil Force Dark Cold Slavery Finals Soldier Burden Heavy Chains Good And Evil Prisoner Packs Cold War Lightness

Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower

“All official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery.”

War Slavery Officials Marxism Relentless

Book:Izbrannye Proizvedenii͡a V Trekh Tomakh

Source: Izbrannye Proizvedenii͡a V Trekh Tomakh

“Most historians agree that Abraham Lincoln was the most important man to ever occupy the White House because he abolished slavery and kept the states united through a bloody civil war.”

Men Important War States House White United Agree Slavery Civil War White House Historian Bloody Abraham

Author:Kitty Kelley