Selina Copper Quotes
I have often heard the ‘sarcastic’ remark applied to the factory worker ‘oh she is only a factory girl’; thus giving the impression to the World that we have no right to aspire to any other society but our own. I am sorry to say that we are not fully awakened to the facts that we contribute largely to the nation's wealth, and therefore demand respect, and not insult.
Selina Copper, 1853-1948, British Suffragette Organizer, The Lancashire Factory Girl, 1898
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was a virtually unheard of idea at the time.
Peel himself was a large land owner. Many Conservatives thought Peel was a traitor to his party and socio economic class just as many Republicans thought Theodore Roosevelt such a “traitor to his class” for not maintaining the privileges of the rich. By 2012, Conservatives who did not support the rich were vilified as “not conservatives” and “socialists.”
This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted. In this famous quote, he correctly anticipated the growth of small businesses, the transition possibilities between workers and employers. At the time, workers and employers were distinct social and economic classes with much hostility between them and relatively little class mobility. Conflicts—even bloody ones—between labor unions and employers were common. Very fascinating is his prediction regarding labor unions. At the time a minority of workers were members of unions and much of the labor strife was caused by companies trying to prevent unionization and unions trying to organize more workers. 60 years after this prediction Bellamy appeared to have been wrong in that the labor movement had grown tremendously and much larger percentage of the workforce were Union members. However, the percentage of unionized workers began to decline and by the year 2000—his target year of his prediction—a comparatively few workers were union members. While labor leaders of 2000 would argue that unions were needed as much as ever, the vast majority of the workforce tended to agree that they had become unnecessary.
The quotation is text uttered by one of her characters.
This marvelous quotation gives us a picture of the essence of the conflict in conception of freedom between Southern whites and negroes. There was no way to change the large majority of whites’ opinions and it is easy to see why Jim Crow and Southern discrimination evolved as it did. The emancipated Blacks had insufficient power or resources and there was not enough effort or success at changing white attitudes and no where near enough law enforcement to impose the view on the majority of the Southern white population.
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