The nation had at last come to the parting of the ways, one of which led to a free-labor system, the other to a slave system fed by the slave-trade.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “The nation had at last come to the parting of the ways, one of which led to a free-labor system, the other to a slave…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois reflects on the critical choices facing the nation regarding labor systems during a pivotal moment in history.
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The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.
The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the…
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.
Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.