1800s – Page 4 – Quotes on Slavery

But why so vehement! so unyielding! so severe!

But why so vehement! so unyielding! so severe! Because the times and the cause demand vehemence. An immense iceberg, larger and more impenetrable …

A mark of inferiority

The Negro knows, acts and feels that God has put a mark of inferiority upon him and this of itself secures his individual satisfaction and happiness. ~ J. B. Davis (July 22, 1848)

But I am ready to resist unto death

My old friend, I love the Union. But I am ready to resist unto death, rather than to submit to the schemes, plans and policy of the Abolitionists and their friends and supporters throughout the non slaveholding States. ~ Wilson Lumpkin (January 6, 1847)

If there is no struggle there is no progress

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august …

My soul should be, as it is, on fire

How, then, ought I to feel, and speak, and write, in view of a system which is red with innocent blood, drawn from the bodies of millions of my …

If the buying, selling and holding of a slave for the sake of gain is a heinous sin and scandal

If the buying, selling and holding of a slave for the sake of gain is a heinous sin and scandal, then verily three-fourths of all the Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians in eleven States of the Union are of the devil. ~ James Smylie (1840)

God has permitted slavery for wise reasons

God has permitted slavery for wise reasons in order to the accomplishment of some great and important …

Their mean and despicable contrivances to deprive us of our Slave property

[The abolitionists’] conduct has been most atrocious. No language is strong enough to denounce it. The shameless impudence with which they have trampled the Constitution under their feet, and their mean and despicable contrivances to deprive us of our Slave property ought to be held up to the scorn of the whole Union. ~ Joseph …

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My scheme was visionary—fanatical—unattainable

I found the minds of the people strangely indifferent to the subject of slavery. Their prejudices were invincible—stronger, if possible, than those of …

These men can be silenced in but one way—Terror—Death

The Northern [Abolitionist] Fanatics must not expect to find in us the unrepresented colonial subjects of an arrogant monarchy. … We do not believe that all or perhaps a majority of the Northern people favour the views of these Incendiaries but what does it boot us if they do not so long as they give …

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