On the record
Next it appears dampening generous enthusiasm in what we once counted glorious; to free the slave is discovered to be tolerable only in so far as it freed his master!
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “Next it appears dampening generous enthusiasm in what we once counted glorious; to free the slave is discovered to be…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois highlights the irony that the emancipation of slaves is often viewed through the lens of benefiting their former masters.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Jan 1, 1903
Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.
Jan 1, 1903
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…
Jan 1, 1903
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.
Jan 1, 1903
They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at…