W.E.B. Du Bois: “It is here that the future and mighty fight for Freedom must and will be made.”

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.

Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.

In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.

By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.