Slavery In America Quotes - Page 2

• As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Wisdom, Freedom, Humor

  "Definition of Democracy," ca. 1 Aug. 1858

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• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Letter to Henry L. Pierce and Others, 6 Apr. 1859

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• 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

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• 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.

  Alexander H. Stephens

  War, Men, White Man

  Alexander H. Stephens' “Corner Stone” Speech, teachingamericanhistory.org. March 21, 1861.

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• If any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly, those who desire it for others

  Abraham Lincoln

  Desire, Firsts, Slave

  Abraham Lincoln, Mario Matthew Cuomo, G. S. Boritt (2004). “Lincoln on Democracy”, p.343, Fordham Univ Press

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• The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Mean, People, Civil War

  Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Md., 18 Apr. 1864

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• On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

  H. Allen Smith

  Monday, Morning, 4th Of July

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• Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.

  Wayne Dyer

  Life, Motivational, Memorial Day

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• So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way; for although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Selfish, Mistake, Men

  "Fragment on Slavery" ca. 1 July 1854

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• Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Prayer, War, Men

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• The world has never had a good definition
  of the word liberty

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Liberty, World

  Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Md., 18 Apr. 1864

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• Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Slavery, Rebellion

  Abraham Lincoln (2009). “The Portable Abraham Lincoln”, p.12, Penguin

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• Slavery in America was perpetuated not merely by human badness but also by human blindness. ... Men convinced themselves that a system that was so economically profitable must be morally justifiable. ... Science was commandeered to prove the biological inferiority of the Negro. Even philosophical logic was manipulated [exemplified by] an Aristotlian syllogism:
  All men are made in the image of God;
  God, as everyone knows, is not a Negro;
  Therefore, the Negro is not a man.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Money, Philosophical, Men

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• Once slavery in America was not seen as radical. It became, instead, a revolutionary idea that slaves should be freed. When we have lived under a pernicious power long enough, no matter how oppressive, we grow so accustomed to the yoke that its removal seems frightening, even wrong.

  Gerry Spence

  Ideas, America, Long

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• I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay, if one HONESTman, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Names, Abolition Of Slavery

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.10, Hayes Barton Press

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