Slavery Quotes - Page 3

• I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

  Frederick Douglass

  Found, Wanted, Be A Slave

  "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave". Book by Frederick Douglass, 1845.

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• The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

  Oscar Wilde

  Insecure, Civilization, Machines

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

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• I think slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Thinking, Desire, United States

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.723, Jazzybee Verlag

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• The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.

  George Mason

  States, Mankind, Trade

  George Mason's address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788.

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• The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Desire, States, Infant

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, correspondence and miscellanies from the papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.111

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• Slavery was, in a very real sense, the first
  international human rights issue to come to the fore. It led to the
  adoption of the first human rights laws and to the creation of the
  first human rights non-governmenta l organization. And yet despite
  the efforts of the international community to combat this abhorrent
  practice, it is still widely prevalent in all
  its insidious forms, old and new.

  Kofi Annan

  Real, Rights, Law

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• The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wisdom, Workout, Children

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.130, Hackett Publishing

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• I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Hate, Example, World

  Speech, Peoria, Ill., 16 Oct. 1854

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• Base is the slave that pays.

  William Shakespeare

  Pay, Slave

  William Shakespeare, T.W. Craik (1995). “King Henry V: Third Series”, p.164, Cengage Learning EMEA

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• Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

  William Cowper

  Country, Fall, Air

  'The Task' (1785) bk. 2 'The Timepiece' l. 40.

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• I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.

  William Cowper

  Sleep, Fans, Wealth

  William Cowper (1811). “The task: a poem”, p.40

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• The very mudsills of society. We call them slaves. But I will not characterize that class at the North with that term; but you have it. It is there, it is everywhere, it is eternal.

  James Henry Hammond

  Class, Term, Eternal

  Speech in the U. S. Senate, March 1858.

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• What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man, without that other's consent. I say this is the leading principle - the sheet anchor of American republicanism.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Anchors, Principles

  Speech, Peoria, Ill., 16 Oct. 1854

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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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• I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute a state. I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, Community, States

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2995, Delphi Classics

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• Nobody had ever instructed him that a slave-ship, with a procession of expectant sharks in its wake, is a missionary institution, by which closely-packed heathen are brought over to enjoy the light of the Gospel.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Slave Ships, Light, Sharks

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (1982). “Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or, Life Among the Lowly ; The Minister's Wooing ; Oldtown Folks”, p.530, Library of America

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• The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have found the anti-slavery cause to be ... the school in which human rights are more fully investigated and better understood and taught than in any other.

  Angelina Grimke

  School, Rights, Understanding

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• As legal slavery passed, we entered into a permanent period of unemployment and underemployment from which we have yet to emerge.

  Julian Bond

  Unemployment, Periods, Be A Slave

  Julian Bond (1972). “A time to speak, a time to act: the movement in politics”

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• Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.

  Frederick Douglass

  Literature, Politics, Economy

  Frederick Douglass (2013). “The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass”, p.128, Simon and Schuster

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• We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.

  Victor Hugo

  Wisdom, Civilization, Names

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• You know I dislike slavery; and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Abstract, Knows, Dislike

  Abraham Lincoln (2009). “The Portable Abraham Lincoln”, p.80, Penguin

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• My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy Slavery.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Struggle, Unions

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• The moment this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject slavery, it dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach, and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood.

  James Henry Hammond

  War, Taken, Home

  James Henry Hammond (1836). “Remarks of Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the Question of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia”, p.12

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• Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery," said I, "still thou art a bitter draught.

  Laurence Sterne

  Art, Bitterness, Said

  Laurence Sterne, John Hall-Stevenson (1792). “A Sentimental Journey: Through France and Italy”, p.97

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• We have to make it clear to the multi-nationals that slavery is too high a price to pay for cheap goods

  Kevin Bales

  Pay, Clear, Goods

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