#slavery

You are not property. If you choose to leave, no one will stop you. ↗

— Elizabeth Vaughan

#property #slave #slavery #slavery

We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from some one, there in Hannibal. He was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and had been brought away from his family and his friends, half way across the American continent, and sold. He was a cheery spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing - it was maddening, devastating, unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper, and went raging to my mother, and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break, and I couldn't stand it, and wouldn't she please shut him up. The tears came into her eyes, and her lip trembled, and she said something like this - 'Poor thing, when he sings, it shows that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still, I am afraid he is thinking, and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing, I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older, you would understand me; then that friendless child's noise would make you glad.' It was a simple speech, and made up of small words, but it went home, and Sandy's noise was not a trouble to me any more. ↗

— Mark Twain

#family

Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse! ↗

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

#slavery

Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate: only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world . . . ↗

— Charles Chaplin

#heart #humanity #liberty #love #machines

No nation ever yet found any inconvenience from too close an inspection into the conduct of its officers, but many have been brought to ruin and reduced to slavery by suffering gradual impositions and abuses. ↗

— Edward Livingston

#been #brought #close #conduct #ever

I speak on due consideration because Britain, France, and Mexico, have abolished slavery, and all other European states are preparing to abolish it as speedily as they can. ↗

— William H. Seward

#because #britain #consideration #due #european

There's no question that Stalin broke the agreements made at Yalta completely about elections that were supposed to be held immediately in Poland, and Eastern Europe was plunged into slavery as a consequence. ↗

— Mark Shields

#agreements #broke #completely #consequence #eastern

We must continue to judge of slavery by what it is, and not by what you tell us it will, or may be. ↗

— Gerrit Smith

#judge #may #must #slavery #tell

The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. ↗

— Harriet Ann Jacobs

#inquisition #like #secrets #slavery #those

The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history. ↗

— Elizabeth Cady Stanton

#history #human #human history #page #prolonged