Quotes About History

Hurston writes. "The white people had held my people in slavery in America. They had bought us, it is true and exploited us. But the inescapable fact that stuck in my craw, was: my people had sold me and the white people had bought me. That did away with the folklore I had been brought up on—that the white people had gone to Africa, waved a red handkerchief at the Africans and lured them aboard ship and sailed away."24

The four men responsible for this last deal in human flesh, before the surrender of Lee at Appomattox should end the 364 years of Western slave trading, were the three Meaher brothers and one Captain [William "Bill"] Foster. Jim, Tim, and Burns Meaher were natives of Maine. They had a mill and shipyard on the Alabama River at the mouth of Chickasabogue Creek (now called Three-Mile Creek)

Thankee Jesus! Someone come ast about Cudjo! I want tellee someobody who I is, so maybe dey go in the Afficky soil some day and callee my name and somebody say, 'Yeah, I know Kossula.

Through this publication, Barracoon extends our knowledge of and understanding about the experiences of Africans prior to their disembarkation into the Americas. Like a relic pulled up from the bottom of the ocean floor, Barracoon speaks to us of survival and persistence. It recalls the disremembered and gives an account for the unaccounted. As an expression of the feelings and attitudes of one who survived the Middle Passage, it is rare in the annals of history.

Oluale Kossola was not just a repository of black genius, tapped for a few stories, tales, and colorful phrases, and Zora Neale Hurston knew this. She did not perceive Barracoon as another cultural artifact illustrating the theoretical characteristics of Negro expression but as one, singular, portrait of black humanity.

My name, is not Cudjo Lewis. It Kossula.

Indians don't know much uh nothin', tuh tell de truth. Else dey'd own dis country still.

The Panthays were a group of Chinese Muslims

There seems to be more abiding interest in unearthing old memos abroad than there is here.

There's never been an era absent of demagogues.

Achievements are often more interesting to you when you look back on them.

I want to do an action film, I would love to do a period drama, a biopic, a crime story.

My mum was an anti-racist activist in the 70s and 80s.

I'm a big admirer of S21, and I really also like Rithy Panh's work in general.

Admit it America - 2008 was our national 'oops' moment!

I think sometimes as an adult, you take people for what they do, and what they are now, instead of the whole picture of their lives.

What few realize is the unique role the North Country of New York played in advancing women's rights in the United States.

Slavery is something that affects all of us. It's all of our history.

Afghanistan is a land-locked country.

The future is Afghanistan.

So this is why I'm always say happy that somebody mentions Rwanda, because behind Rwanda, we have Africa.

To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after - there's a strong respect for that in African culture.

We incarcerate more African-American men today than were slaves in 1850.

I only aim for fashion that's long dead.