Booker T. Washington: “As the Negro becomes economically independent, he becomes a responsible part of the Southern life; and the whites so…”

The whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to cause labour, as a rule, to be looked upon as a badge of degradation, of inferiority.

I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.

I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.

Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did.