quotations about slavery
There is an alacrity in a consciousness of freedom, and a gloomy, sullen insolence in a consciousness of slavery.
OWEN FELTHAM
attributed, Day's Collacon
Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Slavery is a continual and permanent violation of human rights.
DANIEL WEBSTER
letter to Rev. Mr. Furness, February 15, 1850
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"
A slave is but half a man.
ARISTOPHANES
attributed, Day's Collacon
In ancient times, as to-day in Asia and Africa, slaves were simply called slaves. In the Middle Ages, they took the name of "serfs", to-day they are called "wage-earners".
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
Marxism, Freedom and the State
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
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
At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right. And he stood on the threshold of freedom for which the blood of the centuries behind him had been spilled.
AYN RAND
Anthem
Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The American Democrat
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"
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"
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
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
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
GEORGE ORWELL
Nineteen Eighty-Four
If there is a State, there must be domination of one class by another and, as a result, slavery; the State without slavery is unthinkable -- and this is why we are the enemies of the State.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
"Statism and Anarchy"
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"
Imprisoned with the pharaohs, i notice no race predominates, but slavery's still the norm, sarcophagus, sarcophagus, sarcophagus,flesh-consumers of the great house
RUDIMENTARY PENI
"Sarcophagus"
But there's no such thing as free. There are only different and more horrible ways to be enslaved.
LAUREN DESTEFANO
Fever
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