Nevertheless, all too soon did they lay aside scruples against it and hasten to share its material benefits.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Nevertheless, all too soon did they lay aside scruples against it and hasten to share its material benefits.”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois observes how quickly moral objections to slavery were abandoned in favor of its economic benefits.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
So long as the world stands meekly dumb before such questions, shall this nation proclaim its ignorance and unhallowed prejudices by denying freedom of opportunity to those who brought the Sorrow Songs to the Seats of the Mighty?
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.
So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to…