Quotes About Emancipation

The glory of science is, that it is freeing the soul -- breaking the mental manacles -- getting the brain out of bondage -- giving courage to thought -- filling the world with mercy, justice, and joy.

Liberty a word without which all other words are vain.

What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.

Is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of pity -- to unbind the martyr from the stake -- break all the chains -- put out the fires of civil war -- stay the sword of the fanatic, and tear the bloody hands of the Church from the white throat of Science? Is it a small thing to make men truly free -- to destroy the dogmas of ignorance, prejudice and power -- the poisoned fables of superstition, and drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of fear?

The truth shall make you free, but first it shall make you angry.

I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart — the best brain.

Think of the lives it has blighted – of the tears it has caused – of the agony it has produced. Think of the millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of dogmas. … It is a great pleasure to drive the fiend of fear out of the hearts of men, women and children. It is a positive joy to put out the fires of hell.

Our goal should be not to redefine masculinity, but to abolish it.

He probably was happy, too, to get away from his mother!)

A person without self-expression is a person without personal freedom.

Nelson Mandela wrote, 'As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.

Nelson Mandela escribió: «Cuando salí hacia el portón que me llevaría a la libertad, supe que, si no dejaba mi amargura y mi odio atrás, seguiría encarcelado».

to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others

No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out.

The fictions were far more persuasive than the facts, and more persuasive than both was the longing to be caught up in a mass movement of solidarity, with the promise of emancipation at the end. My father's grievances were real and well founded. But his solutions were dreams.

The slaves had been liberated, and turned into morons.

I think that we Americans, at least in the Southern col[onie]s, cannot contend with a good grace for liberty until we shall have enfranchised our slaves," Laurens told a friend right before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Of the nine American presidents who owned slaves—a list that includes his fellow Virginians Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe—only Washington set free all of his slaves.

In the words of Frederick Douglass, "That sturdy old Roman, Benjamin Butler, made the negro a contraband, Abraham Lincoln made him a freeman, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant made him a citizen.

May we not justly say . . . that the liberty which Mr. Lincoln declared with his pen General Grant made effectual with his sword—by his skill in leading the Union armies to final victory?

In discussing this Romanian bloodletting with Simon Wolf, Grant declared that "respect for human rights" was the "first duty" of any head of state and that blacks and Jews should be elevated to a rank of "equality with the most enlightened." Grant showed surprising passion on the subject, saying "the story of the sufferings of the Hebrews of Roumania profoundly touches every sensibility of our nature.

Wherever our flag floats, it is the flag of slavery

Far from hiding Black Jack, the irascible John Custis doted on him, and when the little boy was five, he submitted a petition to the governor to free the boy "christened John but commonly called Jack, born of the body of his Negro wench young Alice."19 To celebrate his emancipation, the boy was given four slaves as playmates.20 Obviously John Custis didn't rate very highly as a child psychologist.

In the fall elections, Lincoln paid a fearful price for that impending proclamation. Berating Republicans as "Nigger Worshippers," Democrats conjured up fantastic "scenes of lust and rapine" in the South and "a swarthy inundation of negro laborers and paupers" in the North as the likely consequences of emancipation.