W.E.B. Du Bois: “Was I the masterful captain or the pawn of laughing sprites?”

Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.

The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.

The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant.

So the Cotton Kingdom still lives; the world still bows beneath her sceptre.