Political Quotes

W.E.B. Du Bois: “Plain instructions went out from Washington: the laborers must be free to choose their employers, no fixed rate of wages…”

On the record
Plain instructions went out from Washington: the laborers must be free to choose their employers, no fixed rate of wages was prescribed, and there was to be no peonage or forced labor.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois

Editor's note · Context

Du Bois outlines the principles set by Washington regarding labor for freedmen after the Civil War.

Share

More from W.E.B. Du Bois

Jan 1, 1903

Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1903

Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.

gutenberg.org