quotations about slavery
During ten or fifteen years I had been, as it were, dragging a heavy chain which no strength of mine could break; I was not only a slave, but a slave for life. I might become a husband, a father, an aged man, but through all, from birth to death, from the cradle to the grave, I had felt myself doomed. All efforts I had previously made to secure my freedom had not only failed, but had seemed only to rivet my fetters the more firmly, and to render my escape more difficult. Baffled, entangled, and discouraged, I had at times asked myself the question, May not my condition after all be God's work, and ordered for a wise purpose, and if so, Is not submission my duty? A contest had in fact been going on in my mind for a long time, between the clear consciousness of right and the plausible make-shifts of theology and superstition. The one held me an abject slave--a prisoner for life, punished for some transgression in which I had no lot nor part; and the other counseled me to manly endeavor to secure my freedom. This contest was now ended; my chains were broken, and the victory brought me unspeakable joy.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
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"My Escape from Slavery", The Century Illustrated Magazine, November 1881
Colonel Lloyd's slaves would boast his ability to buy and sell Jacob Jepson. Mr. Jepson's slaves would boast his ability to whip Colonel Lloyd. These quarrels would almost always end in a fight between the parties, and those that whipped were supposed to have gained the point at issue. They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
He got his fat dreams, he got his slaves
He got his profits, he owns our cage,
He has his prisons, he has his gates
He has his judges, they have our fate
RICHIE HAVENS
"Fates"
Nearly all men are slaves for the same reason that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of the Persians -- lack of power to pronounce the syllable, "No." To be able to utter that word and live alone, are the only means to preserve one's freedom and one's character.
SEBASTIEN ROCH NICOLAS CHAMFORT
The Cynic's Breviary
But there's no such thing as free. There are only different and more horrible ways to be enslaved.
LAUREN DESTEFANO
Fever
The turpitude, the inhumanity, the cruelty, and the infamy of the African commerce in slaves have been so impressively represented to the public by the highest powers of eloquence that nothing that I can say would increase the just odium in which it is and ought to be held. Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States.
JOHN ADAMS
letter to T. Robert J. Evans, June 8, 1819
In proportion as slavery prevails in a State, the Government, however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in fact. The power lies in a part instead of the whole; in the hands of property, not of numbers.
JAMES MADISON
Notes for Essays
Slavery brutalizes man; it makes a brute not merely of the slave, but of the slave-holder.
C. L. REMOND
attributed, Day's Collacon
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
PATRICK HENRY
Speech at the Second Virginia Convention at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, March 23, 1775
Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The American Democrat
X is not my real name, but if you study history you'll find why no black man in the western hemisphere knows his real name. Some of his ancestors kidnapped our ancestors from Africa, and took us into the western hemisphere and sold us there. And our names were stripped from us and so today we don't know who we really are. I am one of those who admit it and so I just put X up there to keep from wearing his name.
MALCOLM X
Oxford Union Debate, December 3, 1964
It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.
JOHN JAY
letter to R. Lushington, March 15, 1786
Gluttonized foundation
Well versed in the art of slavery
Patrons of feudal interest
Scurry around a concrete beehive
Crazed civilization frantically going nowhere
DISCORDANCE AXIS
"Empire"
Within a few years past, the subject of slavery has been repeatedly discussed, in the legislature of this state, with great force of reasoning, and eloquence. The injustice of it has been generally, if not uniformly acknowledged; and the practice of it severely reprobated. But, when the question of total abolition has been seriously put, it has met with steady opposition, and has hitherto miscarried, on the ground of political expediency--That is, it is confessed to be morally wrong, to subject any class of our fellow creatures to the evils of slavery; but asserted to be politically right, to keep them in such subjugation.
THEODORE DWIGHT
an oration before the Connecticut Society, 1794
The man born and bred a slave, even if freed, never loses wholly the feeling or manner of a slave.
MARY CLEMMER AMES
Outlines of Men, Women, and Things
It seemed to me much more than the mere question whether the negro should remain in slavery; that it really involved the question whether liberty should be strangled on the continent dedicated to liberty.
LYMAN ABBOTT
Reminiscences
Whenever a slave shall enter Hawaiian territory, he shall be free.
KAMEHAMEHA V
attributed, Day's Collacon
Slavery, in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of Divine law, and a degradation of human nature.
JACQUES-PIERRE BRISSOT DE WARVILLE
New Travels in the United States of America, Performed in 1788
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
GEORGE ORWELL
Nineteen Eighty-Four
All mankind is divided, as it was at all times and is still, into slaves and freemen; for whoever has not two-thirds of his day for himself is a slave, be he otherwise whatever he likes, statesman, merchant, official, or scholar.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Complete Works: The First Complete and Authorised English Translation, Volume 6