When a man has emerged from slavery, there must be some stage in the progress of his elevation when he takes the rank of mere citizen and ceases to be the special favorite of the laws.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
To depend upon the Will of a Man is Slavery.
Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
From the very first, it has been the educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and elevated the mass, and the sole obstacles that nullified and retarded their efforts were slavery and race prejudice; for what is slavery but the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of natural internal leadership?
The slave has but one master, the ambitious man has as many as there are persons whose aid may contribute to the advancement of his fortunes.
If we aim to act in harmony with the laws of Good, we rise above all other laws and become a law unto ourselves; co-workers with God and helpers in nature. Ours is the privilege, ours the loss, if we fail to live up to our highest possibilities.
Slavery can only be abolished by raising the character of the people who compose the nation; and that can be done only by showing them a higher one.
If a slave is unwilling to go with his new master, he is whipped, or locked up in jail, until he consents to go, and promises not to run away during the year.
As legal slavery passed, we entered into a permanent period of unemployment and underemployment from which we have yet to emerge.
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.
When a good man lends himself to the advocacy of slavery, he must, at least for a time, feel himself to be any where but at home, amongst his new thoughts, doctrines, and modes of reasoning.