SLAVERY QUOTES V

quotations about slavery

Slave trade still exists, it's a legacy of the past
Punishment's long overdue
To fight the fears it casts
Hard-boiled criminals,
they're rotten to the core
Machinery in motion
so long as money is the law

RUNNING WILD

"Slavery"


Slavery is a continual and permanent violation of human rights.

DANIEL WEBSTER

letter to Rev. Mr. Furness, February 15, 1850

Tags: Daniel Webster


Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool, and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone.... I never yet met with, or heard of, a judge who was not a slave of this kind, and so the finest and most unfailing weapon of injustice. He fetches a slightly higher price than the black men only because he is a more valuable slave.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

journal, December 4, 1860

Tags: Henry David Thoreau


The man born and bred a slave, even if freed, never loses wholly the feeling or manner of a slave.

MARY CLEMMER AMES

Outlines of Men, Women, and Things

Tags: Mary Clemmer Ames


They keep on talking, they're oh so proud
They keep us walking, they scream so loud
They own the venue, they own he crowd
Hey, yeah, slavery

RICHIE HAVENS

"Fates"


Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.

AESCHYLUS

Agamemnon

Tags: Aeschylus


X is not my real name, but if you study history you'll find why no black man in the western hemisphere knows his real name. Some of his ancestors kidnapped our ancestors from Africa, and took us into the western hemisphere and sold us there. And our names were stripped from us and so today we don't know who we really are. I am one of those who admit it and so I just put X up there to keep from wearing his name.

MALCOLM X

Oxford Union Debate, December 3, 1964


Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.... The subjection of individuals will increase amongst democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance.

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

Democracy in America


Do you, do you remember those days of slavery?
It wasn't black man alone, who died thru bravery.
'Though some a dem threw dem self over board,
because dis ya slaveship overload.

EEK-A-MOUSE

"Do You Remember"


It is the mind of man alone that is the cause of his bondage or freedom.

CHANAKYA

Vridda-Chanakya

Tags: Chanakya


Let every voice be thunder, let every heart beat strong
Until all tyrants perish our work shall not be done
Let not our memories fail us the lost year shall be found
Let slavery's chains be broken the whole wide world around.

PETER, PAUL & MARY

"Because All Men Are Brothers"


Servants to mother machine
Nursed by video screens
Paradise of insanity
Born into a grave of
Mental slavery

KREATOR

"Mental Slavery"


Slavery is an infringement of two laws -- of Divine law which proclaims the equality of human nature before God, and of human law which declares an equality of political rights.

ALBERT BRISBANE

Social Destiny of Man


The turpitude, the inhumanity, the cruelty, and the infamy of the African commerce in slaves have been so impressively represented to the public by the highest powers of eloquence that nothing that I can say would increase the just odium in which it is and ought to be held. Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States.

JOHN ADAMS

letter to T. Robert J. Evans, June 8, 1819

Tags: John Adams


There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. 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.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782


Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee


It seemed to me much more than the mere question whether the negro should remain in slavery; that it really involved the question whether liberty should be strangled on the continent dedicated to liberty.

LYMAN ABBOTT

Reminiscences

Tags: Lyman Abbott


All mankind is divided, as it was at all times and is still, into slaves and freemen; for whoever has not two-thirds of his day for himself is a slave, be he otherwise whatever he likes, statesman, merchant, official, or scholar.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Complete Works: The First Complete and Authorised English Translation, Volume 6

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche


Whenever a slave shall enter Hawaiian territory, he shall be free.

KAMEHAMEHA V

attributed, Day's Collacon


Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery! still thou art a bitter draught; and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account.

LAURENCE STERNE

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy