"My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave"
About this Quote
Robeson stacks identities like evidence, then detonates them. The line begins with a folksy credential - “born in your state” - the kind of local kinship that’s supposed to soften a room and flatter a skeptical interlocutor (“Mr. Walter” lands as courtroom-formal, pointed). Then he pivots: Quaker lineage, Revolutionary War service, bread baked for Washington’s troops. This is the warm, stitched-into-the-national-myth version of American belonging. He’s not asking for entry; he’s naming receipts.
And then he drops the clause that changes the temperature: “and my own father was a slave.” The syntax matters. Robeson uses “and” over and over, a steady drumbeat that makes slavery not an aside but the final, unavoidable item on the ledger. The effect is to force two founding stories - liberty and bondage - into the same breath. If the earlier references are America’s polished monument, the last one is its unmarked grave.
As an actor and public figure, Robeson understood performance as power: he’s staging a reversal of the usual interrogation, where Black citizens are asked to prove patriotism while the state’s violence goes unexamined. The intent isn’t sentimental autobiography; it’s a strategic claim to moral authority. He’s telling his listener: you can’t brand me alien or disloyal when my family history is braided into your cherished origin tale. If America wants the bread-and-Delaware story, it has to take the slavery story with it.
And then he drops the clause that changes the temperature: “and my own father was a slave.” The syntax matters. Robeson uses “and” over and over, a steady drumbeat that makes slavery not an aside but the final, unavoidable item on the ledger. The effect is to force two founding stories - liberty and bondage - into the same breath. If the earlier references are America’s polished monument, the last one is its unmarked grave.
As an actor and public figure, Robeson understood performance as power: he’s staging a reversal of the usual interrogation, where Black citizens are asked to prove patriotism while the state’s violence goes unexamined. The intent isn’t sentimental autobiography; it’s a strategic claim to moral authority. He’s telling his listener: you can’t brand me alien or disloyal when my family history is braided into your cherished origin tale. If America wants the bread-and-Delaware story, it has to take the slavery story with it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Family |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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