Colson Whitehead Quotes

[Describing slavery:] ... a cruel war against human nature itself.

I think slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could.

Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet.

Slavery was not a bad day on the job. It was not your boss yelling at you. It was not hard work for little pay. This was a full system of human subjugation.

Slavery is the cause of treason and sustains it everywhere it exists.

Every slave is a stolen man.

Can the pleasure of sweetening our tea with sugar grown by slaves make up for all the misery produced among our fellow creatures, the butchery of the human species by this detestable traffic in the bodies and souls of men?

These poor wretches were stolen from their homes, carried to a strange country, and sold to servitude, from which they sought to escape on the first occasion which offered.

Slavery is malignantly aristocratic.

Slavery exists. It is black in the South, and white in the North.

I've heard 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' read, and I tell you Mrs. Stowe's pen hasn't begun to paint what slavery is as I have seen it at the far South. I've seen de real thing, and I don't want to see it on no stage or in no theater.

Slavery is a wrong to each individual enslaved; and not merely to the first of a series. Natural law, therefore, as much forbids the enslaving of the child, as if the wrong of enslaving the parent had never been perpetrated.

The poor North has much to do with slavery. It staggers under its load and smarts under its lash.

What slavery really demonstrated was that we don't really know how to use energy wisely and that we can be incredibly abusive and barbaric.

No blessing, no good, can follow in the path trodden by slavery.

Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.

The very flag of freedom that waves over our heads is formed from material cultivated by slaves, on soil moistened with their blood drawn from them by the whip of a republican taskmaster!

Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains, but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime.

I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions.

The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.

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.

Slavery is so vile and miserable estate of man and so directly opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation.

Trafficking Negroes is right, just and lawful. In my opinion there is no more crime in bringing off a cargo of slaves than in bringing off a cargo of jackasses.