Slavery Quotes - Page 34

• Could you have seen that mother clinging to her child, when they fastened the irons upon his wrists; could you have heard her heart-rending groans, and seen her bloodshot eyes wander wildly from face to face, vainly pleading for mercy; could you have witnessed that scene as I saw it, you would exclaim, Slavery is damnable!

  Harriet Ann Jacobs

  Mother, Children, Eye

  Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.38

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• In the beginning this was just an idea. Then it was a short story. Then it was a script. Each step was pretty exciting to see people come on board to support the project. It's gratifying to know that more people are seeing my work in this form than my work as a playwright. And it's been fun to hear people's response to seeing it. I've been having some deep conversations with strangers and friends about how much it has made them think about slavery and its impact today.

  Steven C. Harper

  Fun, Thinking, Impact

  Source: www.nerdprobs.com

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• Even though the topic [of slavery] itself is the big, screaming elephant in the room, we still get a chance to have fun and enjoy what is on the screen, and we have moments where we're actually happy.

  Aldis Hodge

  Fun, Elephants, Rooms

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• They don't really focus on that history here in America. I remember growing up as a kid, history class was very washed-over. They didn't really get into the gritty bits of slavery. It's a very, very small section in the history books. It's not something they really touch on directly with American curriculums.

  Aldis Hodge

  Growing Up, Book, Kids

  "Aldis Hodge Emerges from the Underground". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 7, 2016.

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• We've gone thorough religious wars and civil wars. America has gone through slavery, we've all gone through two world wars, segregation. Ultimately it's been a bloody, trying, wasteful, but eventually positive struggle.

  Michael Scheuer

  Religious, War, Struggle

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• For me, seeing our history told in this light, the ones who did rebel, the ones who did revolt, the revolutionaries, excited me. Seeing this story of the Underground Railroad ... and that is such a proud part of our history that not a lot of us know about, where these brave men and women, they were heroes, really helped tear down the system of slavery just by running.

  Jurnee Smollett

  Running, Hero, Men

  "Jurnee Smollett-Bell Gets Deep About Underground, a Slave Narrative That Will Make You Proud to Be Black". Interview with Ronda Racha Penrice, www.theroot.com. March 9, 2016.

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• But really, for me, I tried to find first-person accounts. I tried to read stories from men and women who had survived slavery because it's different when you hear it from their mouths instead of reading it from a history book.

  Jurnee Smollett

  Book, Reading, Men

  "Jurnee Smollett-Bell Gets Deep About Underground, a Slave Narrative That Will Make You Proud to Be Black". Interview with Ronda Racha Penrice, www.theroot.com. March 9, 2016.

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• One of the most tragic things about slavery was the mental enslavement, the way they made us believe that we were worth nothing; and that's what she's fighting against.

  Jurnee Smollett

  Believe, Fighting, Way

  "Jurnee Smollett-Bell Gets Deep About Underground, a Slave Narrative That Will Make You Proud to Be Black". Interview with Ronda Racha Penrice, www.theroot.com. March 9, 2016.

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• There are three things, and it depends on the group that we're talking about, but there's history, there's culture, and then there's social networks. So, you know, historically black and white, they worship together until about the end of slavery, and people started moving out into separate churches. But it was because of discrimination and racism and such that blacks began to establish their own denominations and their own churches.

  Michael Emerson

  Moving, Black And White, Talking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Emerson was not passionate about abolition. He wasn't a passionate person. He was a cool intellectual, and I think he probably was a little uncomfortable with passionate people, but he was against slavery.

  Nell Irvin Painter

  Thinking, People, Intellectual

  Source: bigthink.com

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• Most of the people who come into slavery today, the people who enter into slavery for the first time in the present moment, are not captured, they're not knocked over the head, it doesn't follow the old sorts of mechanisms.

  Kevin Bales

  Slavery Today, People, Firsts

  Source: bigthink.com

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• If our kids were hungry, we'd step into slavery.

  Kevin Bales

  Kids, Steps, Hungry

  Interview with Max Miller, bigthink.com. September 24, 2010.

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• I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.

  Dave Zirin

  Country, Mean, Dark

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• Culture of dependency leads to a life of slavery, being totally dependent upon government. And government dictates where they go in life.

  Rafael Cruz

  Government, Culture, Dependent

  Source: www.buzzfeed.com

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• Let's say Twitter existed during the Civil War. We would have a better understanding of people in the Confederacy who were against slavery, people in the North who actually felt we should just let the South be the South. Because the way it is now, it seems like we have this portrait where everybody in Georgia hated Yankees and everybody in the North was enlightened. That wouldn't seem as clear cut as it does now.

  Chuck Klosterman

  War, Cutting, Yankees

  "Chuck Klosterman: The future will be worse than you think". Interview with Chris Weller, www.businessinsider.com. June 6, 2016.

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• The teachings of Elijah Muhammad on how black people have been brainwashed.How they've been taught to love white and hate black, how we've been robbed of our names in slavery.We were robbed of our culture, we were robbed of our true history. So it left us a walking dead man.

  Muhammad Ali

  Hate, Teaching, Men

  Interview with Michael Parkinson, www.mirror.co.uk. 1971.

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• So when I heard that we don't have our names, we don't speak our true Arabic language, we were robbed of Islam, our true religion, and we've been made deaf, dumb, and blind in slavery.And Elijah Muhammad was taught by Allah, who we refer to as God, to teach us the truth that will free us.And when I heard it, I've been free ever since. I have no racial problems, I don't go where I'm not wanted.

  Muhammad Ali

  Names, Dumb, Islam

  "Parkinson" with Michael Parkinson, www.mirror.co.uk. 1971.

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• I understand that the worst people in England at a time were ran to America, for some reason.
  Then slavery came and calls of aggression. But we've been there 600 years and there ain't no peace between black and whites because the cultures are different - like the Chinese and Mexicans cannot integrate: the music is different, the eating is different.

  Muhammad Ali

  Black And White, Years, America

  Interview with Michael Parkinson, www.mirror.co.uk. June 5, 2016.

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• The Bible Belt, the religious South, is the section of the country that practiced slavery until the war made them give it up. They practiced segregation. They practiced lynchings. I don't see any great value in that.

  John Shelby Spong

  Country, Religious, War

  Source: mormon-chronicles.blogspot.com

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• Some people in the church, like Martin Luther King, Jr., came out against segregation. But if you look at the bulk of organized religion, you will discover that it endorsed slavery and quoted the Bible to approve it; the Pope even owned slaves.

  John Shelby Spong

  Kings, People, Church

  Source: mormon-chronicles.blogspot.com

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• I grew up in North Carolina being told that the Bible approves slavery and segregation, that it was the will of God.

  John Shelby Spong

  North Carolina, Segregation, Grew Up

  Source: mormon-chronicles.blogspot.com

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• In supporting argument for segregation, Paul [the apostol] addresses the people in his epistle to the Colossians, and he tells them how to treat their slaves. "Slaves, obey your masters. Masters, be kind to yourslaves." Paul was in favor of a kinder and gentler slavery; it never occurred to him to raise the question about whether slavery itself was immoral.

  John Shelby Spong

  People, Addresses, Favors

  Source: mormon-chronicles.blogspot.com

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• Justice Jefferson has a blind spot on race. You know, more than a blind spot. A terrible blemish on his legacy, slavery, for which he's properly excoriated. So, I think [Louis] Brandeis has done this as well.

  Jeffrey Rosen

  Thinking, Blind Spots, Race

  "What Would Brandeis Do?". "Amicus" with Dahlia Lithwick, www.slate.com. June 16, 2016.

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• We have the history of slavery or inequality to women, and now the civil rights movement of the 21st century is the struggle for equality for the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. And I think it's important for Americans to know about the times that we failed.

  George Takei

  Struggle, Gay, Thinking

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• Liberty and freedom were the primary reason that people wanted to come here. They wanted to escape bondage, slavery, tyranny, poverty, whatever, where they lived. It was America that promised a much better life.

  Rush Limbaugh

  America, People, Liberty

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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