Jefferson Davis Quotes

To have found a great people sunk in the lowest depths of slavery and superstition, to have so ruled them as to have made them desirous and capable of all the privileges of citizens, would indeed be a title to glory all our own.

In raising a people from slavery to freedom, you have called them to act on a new theatre; and it is a necessary part of your business, to teach them how to perform their parts.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman.

Education liberates a woman.

I am the law. I am over the slave owners that used to be over me. I am their mayor.

The object shall be to aid in the extinction of slavery all over the world by means exclusively lawful and peaceable, moral and religious, such as by the diffusing of useful information and argument, by tracts, newspapers, lectures and correspondence, and by manifesting sympathy with the houseless and homeless victims of slavery flying to our soil

I should have done violence to my convictions of duty, had I not made use of all the lawful means in my power to liberate those people, and assist them to become men and women, rather than leave them in the condition of chattels personal.

Self Emancipation

Immediate, unconditional emancipation. The best preparation for freedom is freedom.

Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete

Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

A slave- holder, who has decided to abolish slavery, does not consult his slaves whether they desire freedom or not.

Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.

Death is better than slavery.

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

Emancipation - what is meant by it? Simply that the slaves shall cease to be held as property and shall henceforth be held and treated as human beings. Simply, that we should take our feet from off their necks.

Moses freed the Jews. Lincoln freed the slaves. I freed the neurotics.

The air of England has long been too pure for a slave, and every man is free who breathes it.

Perish the infamous doctrine that man can have property in man. Let us resent with indignation every effort to put a chain upon our minds.

I'm not a slave to anything anymore. And I never will be again.

'Sexy' is being independent, being confident and having fun.

Liberation is not deliverance.

It is within your power at this very moment not only to consumate an act of enlightened statesmanship, but, as the instrument of the Almighty, to restore to freedom a race of men.

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails.