On the record
The movement was not a great moral protest against an iniquitous traffic; although it had undoubtedly a strong moral backing, it was primarily a temporary war measure.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “The movement was not a great moral protest against an iniquitous traffic; although it had undoubtedly a strong moral…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois critiques the motivations behind the movement against the slave trade, suggesting it was more a wartime strategy than a moral crusade.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Jan 1, 1903
Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.
Jan 1, 1903
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.
Jan 1, 1903
This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius.
Jan 1, 1903
Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a…