54 Quotes About Slave

Slavery is one of the most shameful periods in American history. It was a practice that dehumanized people and stripped them of their rights. The process of enslavement was slow, cruel, and in many cases, fatal. It also served as a foundation for the institution of white supremacy in America Read more

Slaves were forced to work without pay, their bodies were abused with whippings, brandings, and maiming, and they were raped repeatedly. All of this happened for the sake of profit. It left many with physical or psychological injury or illness for life.

You can learn more about slavery in the United States here.

1
I see things in windows and I say to myself that I want them. I want them because I want to belong. I want to be liked by more people, I want to be held in higher regard than others. I want to feel valued, so I say to myself to watch certain shows. I watch certain shows on the television so I can participate in dialogues and conversations and debates with people who want the same things I want. I want to dress a certain way so certain groups of people are forced to be attracted to me. I want to do my hair a certain way with certain styling products and particular combs and methods so that I can fit in with the In-Crowd. I want to spend hours upon hours at the gym, stuffing my body with what scientists are calling 'superfoods', so that I can be loved and envied by everyone around me. I want to become an icon on someone's mantle. I want to work meaningless jobs so that I can fill my wallet and parentally-advised bank accounts with monetary potential. I want to believe what's on the news so that I can feel normal along with the rest of forever. I want to listen to the Top Ten on Q102, and roll my windows down so others can hear it and see that I am listening to it, and enjoying it. I want to go to church every Sunday, and pray every other day. I want to believe that what I do is for the promise of a peaceful afterlife. I want rewards for my 'good' deeds. I want acknowledgment and praise. And I want people to know that I put out that fire. I want people to know that I support the war effort. I want people to know that I volunteer to save lives. I want to be seen and heard and pointed at with love. I want to read my name in the history books during a future full of clones exactly like me. The mirror, I've noticed, is almost always positioned above the sink. Though the sink offers more depth than a mirror, and mirror is only able to reflect, the sink is held in lower regard. Lower still is the toilet, and thought it offers even more depth than the sink, we piss and shit in it. I want these kind of architectural details to be paralleled in my every day life. I want to care more about my reflection, and less about my cleanliness. I want to be seen as someone who lives externally, and never internally, unless I am able to lock the door behind me. I want these things, because if I didn't, I would be dead in the mirrors of those around me. I would be nothing. I would be an example. Sunken, and easily washed away. . Dave Matthes
2
If you find God, you shall be free forever. Lailah Gifty Akita
3
Your realm is an insane place. In Volaria, no-one goes hungry, slaves are no use when they starve. Those freeborn too lazy or lacking in intelligence to turn sufficient profit to feed themselves are made slaves so they can generate wealth for those deserving of freedom, and be fed in return. Here, your people are chained by their freedom, free to starve and beg from the rich. It's disgusting. Anthony Ryan
4
I was a slave, but never a fool. This empire is vast beyond imagining and we have killed only a fraction of the force they will bring against us. They will kill us, all of us, for we are slaves and we cannot be allowed even the barest hope of freedom. Without us, they have no empire. Anthony Ryan
5
Many if not most slaves would have each readily jumped, and many if not most slaves would each readily jump, at the opportunity to be a master, if such an opportunity presents or had presented itself. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Getting through life without a lot of money, possessions, and/or...
6
Getting through life without a lot of money, possessions, and/or friends is admirable, especially if it is by choice. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
We have glorified wealth and freedom so much that it...
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We have glorified wealth and freedom so much that it is impossible for most of us to truly believe that a man can truly be happy in a shack or within the confines of a prison cell. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Fear is the passion of slaves.
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Fear is the passion of slaves. Patrick Henry
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must...
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Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. Henry David Thoreau
If all men are born free, how is it that...
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If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves? Mary Astell
Slavery was never abolished. It was just renamed.
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Slavery was never abolished. It was just renamed. Anthony T. Hincks
12
White ain't nothing.' Mama's grip did not lessen. 'It is something, Cassie. White is something just like black is something. Everybody born on this Earth is something, and nobody, no matter what color is better than anybody else.'' Then how come Mr. Simms don't know that.'' Because he's one of those people who has to believe that white people are better than black people to make himself feel big.' I stared questionably at Mama, not really understanding. Mama squeezed my hadn't and explained further, 'You see, Cassie, many years ago, when our people were fist brought from Africa in chains to work as slaves in this country--'' Like Big Ma's Papa and Mama?'Mama nodded. "Yes, baby. Like Papa Luke and Mama Rachael. Except they were born right here is Mississippi, but their grandparents were born in Africa. And when they came, there was some white people who thought that is was wrong for any people to be slaves. So the people who needed slaves to work in their fields and the people who were making money bringing slaves from Africa preached that black people weren't really people like white people were, so slavery was all right. They also said that slavery was good for us because it thought us to be good Christians, like the white people.' She sighed deeply, her voice fading into a distant whisper, 'But they didn't teach us Christianity to save our souls, but to teach us obedience. They were afraid of slave revolts and they wanted us to learn the Bible's teachings about slaves being loyal to their masters. But even teaching Christianity didn't make us stop wanting to be free and many slaves ran away. Mildred D. Taylor
13
Which crime has the female sex committed to be sentenced to the harsh necessity which consists of being locked up all life either as a prisoner or a slave? I call the nuns prisoners and the married women slaves. Unknown
Nevermore shall men make slaves of others! Not in Asgard--not...
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Nevermore shall men make slaves of others! Not in Asgard--not on Earth--not any place where the hammer of Thor can be swung--or where men of good faith hold freedom dear! Stan Lee
15
Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar. Friedrich Nietzsche
16
Those who see poverty looking for human slaves to capture, will tell you they saw him holding the handcuffs of laziness. Israelmore Ayivor
17
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. Erich Fromm
18
Life. All this. Why do they need to make us do this? Why do they treat us like we're their slaves?"" Power."" Power isn't real. It's just a word. Pierce Brown
19
And so we smile on, Feeding the truths we share With a union of our souls, Cathedral slaves of our passion Which builds beauty amongst chaos. Scott Hastie
20
I cry looking at our reality, through slave eyes. I bet they would say our generation has crossed the line. Delano Johnson
21
We are not slaves of the past, nor servants of the present, but masters of the future. A.J. Darkholme
22
Youths of the Pellaians and of the Macedonians and of the Hellenic Amphictiony and of the Lakedaimonians and of the Corinthians… and of all the Hellenic peoples, join your fellow-soldiers and entrust yourselves to me, so that we can move against the barbarians and liberate ourselves from the Persian bondage, for as Greeks we should not be slaves to barbarians. Alexander The Great
23
Are we slaves of our pasts? or can we rise above it? Hiba Fatima Ahmad
24
Those who would give us equal opportunity for everybody are threatened by it. They are afraid to lose their privileged positions. They pay lip service to it, they act by half measures and do everything to violate the laws they have themselves instituted to make sure the high class is always high. It never changes, it always goes in a circle, when the oppressed fight and get to the top, and they become the new elite and forget the promises. . Bangambiki Habyarimana
25
The master doesn’t need to chain his slaves; their needs will chain them to him. You can end slavery by the stroke of a pen, but the pressing call of necessity will reestablish it. Bangambiki Habyarimana
26
Free yourself from mental slavery. Break those invisible chains your masters put on your spiritual neck to control you Bangambiki Habyarimana
27
It is said culture requires slaves. I say that no cultured society can be built with slaves. This terrible Twentieth Century has made all cultural theories from Plato down seem ridiculous. Little man, there has never been a human culture. Wilhelm Reich
28
Support what is good and spit out what is bad. Get off of your knees and reject the role of slave to the culture of violence. Bryant McGill
29
The theologians dead, knew no more than the theologians now living. More than this cannot be said. About this world little is known, –about another world, nothing. Our fathers were intellectual serfs, and their fathers were slaves. The makers of our creeds were ignorant and brutal. Every dogma that we have, has upon it the mark of whip, the rust of chain, and the ashes of Robert G. Ingersoll
30
Property is not the natural and obvious and inevitable concept that most people think it is. Robert A. Heinlein
31
I have studied humans for a small eternity. Intent infuses their every movement. Road maps to their inner navigation, plastered all over their skin. Born to be slaves. Karen Marie Moning
32
To be enslaved then, you needed to be ignorant. To be enslaved today, you need to be knowledgeable. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
33
Cow, goat, chicken, lamb .. . only slaves eat like this, ’ Musa said, heaping an impolite amount on to his plate. ‘Our stomachs are graveyards. Arundhati Roy
34
If the Pentateuch is inspired, the civilization of of our day is a mistake and crime. There should be no political liberty. Heresy should be trodden out beneath the bigot's brutal feet. Husbands should divorce their wives at will, and make the mothers of their children houseless and weeping wanderers. Polygamy ought to be practiced; women should become slaves; we should buy the sons and daughters of the heathen and make them bondmen and bondwomen forever. We should sell our own flesh and blood, and have the right to kill our slaves. Men and women should be stoned to death for laboring on the seventh day. 'Mediums, ' such as have familiar spirits, should be burned with fire. Every vestige of mental liberty should be destroyed, and reason's holy torch extinguished in the martyr's blood. Robert G. Ingersoll
35
The authority of the Church was thrown over by the authority of the state. Twenty years only have passed, and the authority of the state is already thrown over by the authority of conscience.. I fear for those yet unborn, that they are already betrayed. Robbed of the truth we can inherit, they will know their sins as only misery, and their forgiveness they will not know at all because they do not know God. Then at last men will be free of God. Then they will be slaves indeed. Lucy Beckett
36
And what does it amount to?" said Satan, with his evil chuckle. "Nothing at all. You gain nothing; you always come out where you went in. For a million years the race has gone on monotonously propagating itself and monotonously reperforming this dull nonsense--to what end? No wisdom can guess! Who gets a profit out of it? Nobody but a parcel of usurping little monarchs and nobilities who despise you; would feel defiled if you touched them; would shut the door in your face if you proposed to call; whom you slave for, fight for, die for, and are not ashamed of it, but proud; whose existence is a perpetual insult to you and you are afraid to resent it; who are mendicants supported by your alms, yet assume toward you the airs of benefactor toward beggar; who address you in the language of master to slave, and are answered in the language of slave to master; who are worshiped by you with your mouth, while in your heart--if you have one--you despise yourselves for it. The first man was a hypocrite and a coward, qualities which have not yet failed in his line; it is the foundation upon which all civilizations have been built. Mark Twain
37
Prosperity is always built on slave labor. Ask any Ameri-can't. Or Bulgari-can. Yes, we can, eat from a trash can... Will Advise
38
Technical people don't make good slaves. Without their wholehearted cooperation, things fall apart. Vernor Vinge
39
Some of today’s slaves sleep on king size beds. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
40
I am a descendent of a whole bunch of Black folk who couldn't be broken. Darnell Lamont Walker
41
Right now I'm thinking a good deal about emancipation. One of our sins was slavery, another was emancipation. It's a paradox. In theory, emancipation was one of the glories of our democracy - and it was. But the way it was done led to tragedy, turning four million people loose with no jobs or trades or learning. And then in 1877 for a few electoral votes, just abandoning them entirely. A huge amount of pain and trouble resulted. Everybody in America is still paying for it. Shelby Foote
42
If the authorities under various false pretenses, continue curtailing the rights of citizens, so that they merely become serfs to a handful of multinational companies, a global rebellion of ordinary people against super capitalism is certainly not inconceivable. A.J. Beirens
43
The masters and overseers were so good at employee development, in their absence, the employees still achieved the company's mission Darnell Lamont Walker
44
Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service – but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay – and not much of at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops – Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes – they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander, they – Darius! . Alexander The Great
45
Go back to bed, Cowan. I want no promises from you. Sandi Layne
46
A third layer of nativeness was composed of those whom others thought directly descended, even the tiniest fraction of their genes, from the human beings who had been brought from Africa centuries ago as slaves. While this layer of nativeness was not vast in proportion of the rest, it had vast importance, for society had been shaped in reaction to it. An unspeakable violence had occurred in relation to it, and yet it endured, fertile, a stratum of soil that perhaps made possible all future transplanted soils. Mohsin Hamid
47
White man trying to kill you slow every day, and sometimes trying to kill you fast. Why make it easy for him? That was one kind of work you could say no to. Colson Whitehead
48
Man cannot be reduced to slavery if he is not distorted first. The politician and the priest have been in a deep conspiracy down the ages. They have been reducing humanity to a crowd of slaves. They are destroying every possibility of rebellion in man–and love is rebellion, because love listens only to the heart and does not care a bit about anything else. Osho
49
Whose starboard eye Saw chariot 'swing low'? James Weldon Johnson
50
Every nation is part of the history we inherit, blacks and whites, slaves and gods; we have no other option, embracing each other. M.F. Moonzajer
51
Making wine and drinking wine is not new to African Americans and others in the Diaspora. South Africa has a three-century history in growing, harvesting and distilling grapes as wine. The entire continent of Africa has a history in wine-making. In this country, slaves cultivated the vineyards owned by Thomas Jefferson and other vintners. Andre Hueston Mack
52
But the pirates never showed, and the slaves found themselves trapped on a narrow peninsula. (Lesson: never trust pirates.) Erik Sass
53
I was hypnotized and I made a wish to be the slave of Satan. My desire was so strong that I could get easily persuaded, now I realize, the wish I made had given me pleasure-a-bubble. I am awakened. I saw the devil's real face. He is horrible, I hate him. But I chose to be his slave. I made my choice. I am sorry beautiful life. I was a slave to my desires. Am a slave to devil. ~ The Chronicles of my Paranoiac Heeds.! . Himmilicious