Slavery In America Quotes

“Taxes also paid for countless projects that kept humans enslaved. Meaning, humans slaved away all day for wages so they could lose their money to taxes and fees that paid for projects that were aimed at keeping humans even more enslaved than they currently were. Humans were paying their masters to enslave them.”
― Jasun Ether, The Beasts of Success

“They took it for more than it was, or anyhow for more than it said; the container was greater than the thing contained, and Lincoln became at once what he would remain for them, “the man who freed the slaves.” He would go down to posterity, not primarily as the Preserver of the Republic-which he was-but as the Great Emancipator, which he was not.”
― Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville

“And by then, I well knew what would be done upon that land, how the sin of theft would be multiplied by the sin of bondage.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer

“The people of the city of Savannah within their collective conscience could follow previous examples in history and forgive the atrocities of actual slavery committed against slaves themselves. But what was it [the city] to do with the knowledge that children completely unaware of the greater ramifications of slavery were led to the Civil War slaughter in its name? How does one acknowledge with forgiveness such an unforgiving mutilation of one’s own mind, body, soul, and legacy?”
― Aberjhani, Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah

“The institution of slavery was, for a quarter millennium, the conversion of human beings into currency, into machines who existed solely for the profit of their owners, to be worked as long as the owners desired, who had no rights over their bodies or loved ones, who could be mortgaged, bred, won in a bet, given as wedding presents, bequeathed to heirs, sold away from spouses or children to cover an owner’s debt or to spite a rival or to settle an estate. They were regularly whipped, raped, and branded, subjected to any whim or distemper of the people who owned them. Some were castrated or endured other tortures too grisly for these pages, tortures that the Geneva Conventions would have banned as war crimes had the conventions applied to people of African descent on this soil. Before there was a United States of America, there was enslavement. Theirs was a living death passed down for twelve generations.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Here in the United States, very little effort has been made to voice formal apologies, make reparations, or pass political mandates about education. Yet this country was founded in part by genocidal policies directed at Native Americans and the enslavement of Black people. Both of these things are morally repugnant. Still I love my country. In fact, it is because I love my country that I want to make sure the mistakes of our past do not get repeated. We cannot afford to cover over the dark chapters of our history, as we have for decades upon decades. It is time for that to stop.”
― Anton Treuer, Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition

“the leather strap the broom the switch
habits before freedom
freedom: the lie which is true
before: kept fed but close to death

the penitentiary the gun the rope
is at hand now that you free
free: kept down with your eyes down
now: night riders patrol in cars

those born again die free
a lie for grateful slaves
grateful: who are better off
lie: who is better off

dig down into the unmarked earth
lay there and be free”
― Chanelle Benz, The Gone Dead

“I leave salaried jobs at the earliest opportunity that require long unpaid hours to be worked.”
― Steven Magee

“I will not take a salaried job unless I know it is regulated to 40 hours per week or less.”
― Steven Magee

“Why would White Texans be more obstreperous than other White southerners? It has been suggested that this was because, unlike other Southern states, Texas had not been defeated militarily. They had won the last battle of the Civil War. That the state had been its own Republic, within the living memory of many Texans, also set them apart from the other Confederates. The very thing that has been seen as a source of strength and pride for latter-day Texans, may have fueled a stubbornness that prevented the state from moving ahead at this crucial moment. [p. 131]”
― Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth

“What if we clamored and yelled, fought in every way we could? And what if we weren't alone? What if it was all of us together rising? Can you imagine it? Can you imagine what we could do?”
― LaTanya McQueen, When the Reckoning Comes: A Novel

“All I want to do is reunite my family. Free them from bond-age. But each time I do, another family is left in pieces. But my brothers would've been sold away if I hadn't come. Forever lost like our sisters. But I've never gone on a mission without the good Lord's consent. This is where I'm supposed to be. It hurts, yes, it does, but the Lord has shown me the way. And it led me back here to my brothers.”
― N.D. Jones, Harriet's Escape: Harriet Tubman Reimagined

“You forever doin' for others. Let me do this one thing for you. Sleep, Harriet. Every battle worth wagin' will be here when you wake.”
― N.D. Jones, Harriet's Escape: Harriet Tubman Reimagined

“Nearly every state’s laws governing the enslaved were based, in part, on the Negro Act of 1740, proving that the uniquely American version of human subjugation was never just a thoughtless experiment. It was ingrained in the fabric of the America. It was intentional: a color-coded, never-ending, legally protected, constitutionally enshrined system of human trafficking that extorted labor, intellectual property, and talent in the most brutal way imaginable. It was born out of fear and white supremacy.”
― Michael Harriot, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

“The only reason Kate had run afoul of the law was because she had shot a white man. The rules were different for them. They could shoot and kill almost anyone and suffer little to no consequences. Yet, if a black, Hispanic, Indian or anyone not white harmed them all the weight of the white judicial system came tumbling down on the heads of those criminals.”

Excerpt From
Peace Quiet and a Little Justice in the Territories
Mark T. Sneed
This material may be protected by copyright.”
― Mark T. Sneed, Peace, Quiet and a Little Justice in a Lawless Territory