Historical voices

It is not from a generous unconcern for the slave’s labor that this cessation from labor is allowed, but from a prudent regard to the safety of the slave system.

The slave’s happiness is not the end sought, but, rather, the master’s safety.

Ostensibly, they are institutions of benevolence, designed to mitigate the rigors of slave life, but, practically, they are a fraud, instituted by human selfishness, the better to secure the ends of injustice and oppression.

Thus, the holidays, became part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrongs and inhumanity of slavery.

A succession of earthquakes would be less destructive, than the insurrectionary fires which would be sure to burst forth in different parts of the south, from such interference.

Woe to the slaveholder when he undertakes to hinder or to prevent the operation of these electric conductors.

But for these, the rigors of bondage would become too severe for endurance, and the slave would be forced up to dangerous desperation.

These holidays are conductors or safety valves to carry off the explosive elements inseparable from the human mind, when reduced to the condition of slavery.

Were slaveholders at once to abandon the practice of allowing their slaves these liberties, periodically, and to keep them, the year round, closely confined to the narrow circle of their homes, I doubt not that the south would blaze with…

These holidays serve the purpose of keeping the minds of the slaves occupied with prospective pleasure, within the limits of slavery.

To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are deprived.

Judging from my own observation and experience, I believe these holidays to be among the most effective means, in the hands of slaveholders, of keeping down the spirit of insurrection among the slaves.

Among a mass of nonsense and wild frolic, once in a while a sharp hit is given to the meanness of slaveholders.

I hated slavery, slaveholders, and all pertaining to them; and I did not fail to inspire others with the same feeling, wherever and whenever opportunity was presented.

Trained from the cradle up, to think and feel that their masters are superior, and invested with a sort of sacredness, there are few who can outgrow or rise above the control which that sentiment exercises.

I cared very little into whose hands I fell—I meant to fight my way.

When a slave cannot be flogged he is more than half free.

This spirit made me a freeman in fact, while I remained a slave in form.

I had reached the point, at which I was not afraid to die.

I was no longer a servile coward, trembling under the frown of a brother worm of the dust, but, my long-cowed spirit was roused to an attitude of manly independence.

It was a resurrection from the dark and pestiferous tomb of slavery, to the heaven of comparative freedom.

Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him; and even this it cannot do long, if the signs of power do not arise.

A man, without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity.

It recalled to life my crushed self-respect and my self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to be A FREEMAN.