W.E.B. Du Bois: “The death of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner proved long since to the Negro the present hopelessness of physical defence.”

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

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.

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

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.