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Quotes About Slavery

Lincoln was the spokesman of the rising capitalist class of the North, who viewed the emancipation of Negro slaves as indispensable to the development and triumph of the manufacturers and bankers of the industrial North, East and West over the slave-holder of the South.
~ A. Philip Randolph
Slavery in West Africa, and in Rome and in the Mediterranean, was something different than slavery in America.
~ Edward Ball
For the better part of two centuries, outsiders have been offering explanations that range from racist to learned-sounding - the supposed inferiority of blacks, the heritage of slavery, overpopulation - for why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
~ Adam Hochschild
Decolonization actually boosted slavery. As foreign powers withdrew from the colonies, people were enslaved by their own countrymen. And we see it in Africa, we see it in Asia.
~ Loretta Napoleoni
I speak on due consideration because Britain, France, and Mexico, have abolished slavery, and all other European states are preparing to abolish it as speedily as they can.
~ William H. Seward
'In the Pines' is a very old song dating back to slavery. Lead Belly made it popular.
~ Fantastic Negrito
Having a wife and kids drove home the brutal reality of the slave system for me - the price it exacted on families. On the other hand, whenever I despair over our history, I am brought back to hope, the hope that things will get better, for my children.
~ Colson Whitehead
I want to see businesses identifying where the highest risks of modern slavery are in their business and supply chains and take targeted steps to address those risks.
~ Amber Rudd
When slavery was over, those atrocities that were done by slave owners was passed over to law enforcement, and law enforcement took up that task.
~ Isaac Wright Jr.
Edward Rutledge, a prominent South Carolina politician, wrote in December that arming freed slaves tended "more effectually to work an eternal separation between Great Britain and the colonies than any other expedient which could possibly have been thought of.
~ Rick Atkinson
The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves.… The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.… Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a freeman contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.
~ Rick Atkinson
The Egyptian argument was quite simple: men were created by Osiris and must obey his will on this earth. They must put up with slavery in the hope that, if they behave well, a better after-life awaits them in the next world – no more slavery, only eternal bliss…
~ Rius
No anti-slavery crusader aimed for a partial solution or settled on a regimen of interim targets. The fight to end slavery was a fight to end 100 percent of slavery for all time. In just that way, we can't settle for partial measures if we are going to win the war for our world. We need to fight for 100 percent sustainability, now.
~ Rob Stewart
The fear of death is the beginning of slavery.
~ Robert Anton Wilson
A few years ago the Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed, "we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." If you accept her logic, why stop there? After all, slavery was a full-employment system.
~ Robert B. Reich
A few years ago Michele Bachmann remarked that if the minimum wage were repealed, "we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." If you accept her logic, why stop there? After all, slavery was a full-employment system.
~ Robert B. Reich
It is no great feat for an economy to create a large number of very-low-wage jobs. Slavery, after all, was a full employment system.
~ Robert B. Reich
Nowadays, of course, most senators employ a slave or two two out their speeches; I have even heard of some who have no idea of what they are going to say until the next is place in front of them; how these fellows can call themselves statesman defeats me
~ Robert Harris
The United States was not without labor-intensive agriculture historically. But rather than solving that with collectivism, it solved it with slavery.
~ Robert M. Sapolsky
Oh, as Dean says, nobody is free - never, except just for a few brief moments now and then, when the flash comes, or when as on my haystack night, the soul slips over into eternity for a little space. All the rest of our years we are slaves to something - traditions - conventions - ambitions - relations.
~ L.M. Montgomery
I'd once asked Jean-Claude what they called Renfields before the release of the book Dracula in 1897. Jean-Claude had said, "Slaves." He'd probably been kidding, but I'd never had the heart to ask again. The
~ Laurell K. Hamilton
Like most blacks in Philadelphia, Eliza was free. She said Philadelphia was the best city for freed slaves or freeborn Africans.
~ Laurie Halse Anderson
Let me ask you something. We're fighting for freedom, right?" I picked my words carefully. "So why is that man allowed to own Baumfree and Bett?" "Well," he said slowly, "we're fighting for our freedom. Not theirs.
~ Laurie Halse Anderson
LIBERTY IS EQUALLY AS PRECIOUS TO A BLACK MAN, AS IT IS TO A WHITE ONE, AND BONDAGE EQUALLY AS INTOLERABLE TO THE ONE AS IT IS TO THE OTHER . . . . AN AFRICAN, OR A NEGRO MAY JUSTLY CHALLENGE, AND HAS AN UNDENIABLE RIGHT TO HIS LIBERTY: CONSEQUENTLY, THE PRACTISE OF SLAVE-KEEPING, WHICH SO MUCH ABOUNDS IN THIS LAND IS ILLICT. —ESSAY WRITTEN BY AFRICAN AMERICAN LEMUEL HAYNES, VETERAN OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON E
~ Laurie Halse Anderson