Political Quotes

W.E.B. Du Bois: It was rather a choice between suffrage and slavery, after endless blood and gold had flowed to sweep human bondage…

On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
It was rather a choice between suffrage and slavery, after endless blood and gold had flowed to sweep human bondage away.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois

Editor's note · Context

Du Bois asserts that the post-Civil War choice for the nation was not about the degree of Black suffrage, but fundamentally between granting the ballot or perpetuating a form of slavery.

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To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes…

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