Quote

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.

You got to remember that slavery's very complex. It has a lot of levels to it.

This and many others only confirmed me in the opinion, planted when I saw the sale of Martha Ann, and growing steadily thereafter, that slavery was an accursed business, and that the sooner my people were relieved of it, the better.

But when you see personal artifacts relating to - by genealogy at least - a living human being, it was just more impressive to me than just about anything I've ever read about slavery before.

I welcomed the organization of the Anti-slavery Society.

I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation - only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person.

I studied African American studies, and I read these slave narratives and the escape narratives of people that were able to escape slavery and always found those stories intriguing and powerful and inspiring.

Slavery, first and foremost, was an energy institution. Shackling human muscle was about getting work done.

We incarcerate more African-American men today than were slaves in 1850.