Slave Quotes

"I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted"

"I could, as a free man, look across the bay toward the Eastern Shore where I was born a slave"

"Fugitive slaves were rare then, and as a fugitive slave lecturer, I had the advantage of being the first one out"

"Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work"

"The proceedings of this House in 1790, in reference to petitions on the matter of the slave trade, and of slavery in the States, have been cited. It has been said that those petitions were not received"

Caleb Cushing, Diplomat

"If there be any plausible reason for supposing that we have the right to legislate on the slave interests of the District, you cannot put down the investigation of the subject out of doors, by refusing to receive petitions"

Caleb Cushing, Diplomat

"According to the Gorean way of looking at things a taste of the slave ring is thought to be occasionally beneficial to all women, even the exalted free woman"

John Norman, Writer

"Homelessness is the actor's fate; physical incapacity to attain what is most required and desired by such a spirit as I am a slave to"

Edwin Booth, Actor

"These Scriptures, therefore, are infinitely far from justifying the slavery under consideration; for it cannot be made to appear that one in a thousand of these slaves has done any thing to forfeit his own liberty"

Samuel Hopkins, Clergyman

"Lincoln emancipated nobody. The man freed not a single slave"

L. Neil Smith, Writer

"A free race cannot be born of slave mothers"

Margaret Sanger, Activist

"In a word, if any kind of slavery can be vindicated by the Holy Scriptures, we are already sure our making and holding the Negroes our slaves, as we do, cannot be vindicated by any thing we can find there, but is condemned by the whole of divine revelation"

Samuel Hopkins, Clergyman

"A cat will be your friend, but never your slave"

Theophile Gautier, Poet

"Besides paid white laborers, there was everywhere a class of white servants bound without wages for a term of years, and a more miserable class of Negro slaves"

Albert Bushnell Hart, Historian

"Furthermore, the slaves cannot be put into a more wretched situation, ourselves being judges, and the community cannot take a more lively step to escape ruin, and obtain the smiles and protection of Heaven"

Samuel Hopkins, Clergyman

"Father had notions about manhood suffrage, public schools, the education and the elevation of the masses, and the gradual emancipation of the slaves, that did not suit the uncompromising views of people in places like Richmond"

John Sergeant Wise, Author

"This is the artist, then, life's hungry man, the glutton of eternity, beauty's miser, glory's slave"

Tom Wolfe, Journalist

"A Gorean slave girl in the presence of a free man or woman always kneels, unless excused from doing so"

John Norman, Writer

"Rock n' Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out of it, to take them away. That's what rock n' roll should do - take you to a better place"

Meat Loaf, Musician

"Wealthy men, too, like several of those in our neighborhood, had so many slaves that they were compelled to buy other plantations on which to employ them"

John Sergeant Wise, Author

"John Brown was tried for treason, murder, and inciting slaves to insurrection"

John Sergeant Wise, Author

"In such a condition of affairs, the practical difference between the abolitionist and the sympathizer, to the man who lost his slave and could not recover it, was very nebulous"

John Sergeant Wise, Author

"Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave"

G. I. Gurdjieff, Educator

"The Southern slave would obey God in respect to marriage, and also to the reading and studying of His word. But this, as we have seen, is forbidden him"

Gerrit Smith, Politician

"I don't think anyone has exhausted the range of sound possible in a conventional rock band, but people do become slaves to their own easiest techniques"

Steve Albini, Musician

"It seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk in armor"

Margaret Fuller, Critic

"If it be not a sin, an open, flagrant violation of all the rules of justice and humanity, to hold these slaves in bondage, it is indeed folly to put ourselves to any trouble and expense in order to free them"

Samuel Hopkins, Clergyman

"I do not subscribe to the doctrine that the people are the slaves and property of their government. I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government"

Gerrit Smith, Politician

"Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Robert Lincoln bought a nice ski lodge"

Sarah Vowell, Author

"If you are worthy of its affection, a cat will be your friend but never your slave"

Theophile Gautier, Poet

"The victory of the working people over the exploiters and slave holders is at the same time the victorious struggle for liberation by the German people"

Walter Ulbricht, Politician

"The first census in 1790 asked just six questions: the name of the head of the household, the number of free white males older than 16, the number of free white males younger than 16, the number of free white females, the number of other free persons, and the number of slaves"

Tom G. Palmer, Educator

"Nor was it only from the millions of slaves that chains had been removed; the whole nation had been in bondage; free speech had been suppressed"

Matthew Simpson, Clergyman

"Without sounding too pretentious, I was sort of a slave to the narrative. When the narrative cracks in, I have to go where it takes me. I had to go to the Bohemian Grove. It was the obvious end to the book"

Jon Ronson, Journalist

"And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It's the slave quality that I find very alluring"

Hugh Grant, Actor

"We can constitutionally extirpate slavery at this time. But if we fail to do this, then unless we intend hereafter to violate the Constitution, we shall have a fugitive slave law in operation whenever the war is over"

Jay Alan Sekulow, Lawyer

"I'll dabble here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me locked down like a slave so, of course, I'll be doing albums during this time"

Erykah Badu, Musician

"My parents never told us that our great-grandmothers had been slaves"

Constance Baker Motley, Activist

"Before passing different laws for different people, I'd relinquish myself unto you as your slave"

Franz Grillparzer, Poet

"It is a great mistake, as we have already remarked, to be afraid of Him and to act in His presence like a timid and craven slave trembling with fright before his master"

Alphonsus Liguori, Clergyman

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