Slavery Quotes - Page 7

• A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Believe, Fall, Government

  Speech at Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfield, Ill., 16 June 1858

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• So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to the master - so long as the failure, or misfortune, or imprudence, or death of the kindest owner, may cause them any day to exchange a life of kind protection and indulgence for one of hopeless misery and toil - so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best-regulated administration of slavery.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Beautiful, Heart, Law

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (2008). “Uncle Tom's Cabin”, p.13, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Excessive liberty leads both nations and individuals into excessive slavery.
  [Lat., Nimia libertas et populis et privatis in nimiam servitutem cadit.]

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Liberty, Individual, Nations

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• Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

  Emma Lazarus

  Inspirational, Freedom, Tired

  "The New Colossus" l. 10 (1883).

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• If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today... The Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone... we must be compassionate!

  Josephine Bakhita

  Love, God, Christian

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• Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks.

  Chris Rock

  4th Of July, Holiday, White

  Twitter post from Jul 04, 2012

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• Slave power crushes freedom of speech and of opinion. Slave power degrades labor. Slave power is arrogant, is jealous and intrusive, is cruel, is despotic, not only over the slave but over the community, the state.

  Elizabeth Van Lew

  Crush, Freedom, Jealous

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• By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master?

  Walter Rodney

  Violence, Morality, Break

  "The Groundings with my Brothers". Book by Walter Rodney, 1969.

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• If We allow Slaves, we act against the very Principles by which we associated together, which was to relieve the distressed.

  James Oglethorpe

  Together, Principles, Governors

  James Edward Oglethorpe (1990). “General Oglethorpe's Georgia: 1738-43”

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• Everyday, day & night, we hear the lies that September 11th is the worst tragedy, worst accident, and worst crime to ever been committed on American soil. We bear witness that the worst crime, the worst tragedy, that has ever taken place on American soil is not September 11th. It's not the twin towers. It's the holocaust that black folks been dealing with for 400 years.

  Malik Zulu Shabazz

  Lying, Taken, Night

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• We can see quite plainly that our present civilization is built on the exploitation of animals, just as past civilisations were built on the exploitation of slaves.

  Donald Watson

  Animal, Past, Civilization

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• There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.

  Monique Wittig

  Time, Laughter, Remember You

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• Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.

  Anna Quindlen

  Fashion, Looks, Racist

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• When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Couple, Justice, Diversity

  "The Second Sex". Book by Simone de Beauvoir, 1949.

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• Slavery may, perhaps, be best compared to the infantile disease of measles; a complaint which so commonly attacks the young of humanity in their infancy, and when gone through at that period leaves behind it so few fatal marks; but which when it normally attacks the fully developed adult becomes one of the most virulent and toxic of diseases, often permanently poisoning the constitution where it does not end in death.

  Olive Schreiner

  Humanity, Gone, May

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• Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.

  Seneca the Younger

  Inspirational, Human Trafficking, Be A Slave

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• He [Stephen Douglas] is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Lying, Light, Soul

  Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Paul M. Angle (1958). “The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858”, p.311, University of Chicago Press

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• You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Thinking, Differences, Civil War

  Abraham Lincoln (2008). “The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln”, p.160, Wildside Press LLC

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• I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question - that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices, - I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Soil, Compromise, Permit

  Abraham Lincoln (1989). “Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46”, p.197, Library of America

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• In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip, on a Steam Boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Sight, Ohio, Iron

  Abraham Lincoln (1989). “Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 1: 1832-1858: Library of America #45”, p.360, Library of America

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• African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing.

  Jefferson Davis

  Blessing, Political, United States

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• The money that we possess is the instrument of liberty, that which we lack and strive to obtain is the instrument of slavery.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Money, Liberty, Strive

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (1861). “The confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau, transl”, p.30

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• I would rather be a rebel than a slave.

  Emmeline Pankhurst

  Independent Women, Rebel, Suffragists

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• My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Believe, Struggle

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• It's as if all identity has been stolen from them, except their identity as slaves.

  Kevin Bales

  Identity, Stolen, Has Beens

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