Clotel quotes

in coaches, to ride on the outside; in railways, to ride in the ‘Negro car;’ and in churches, to sit in the ‘Negro pew.’ But no sooner was I on British soil than I was recognised as a man and an equal.

The very dogs in the streets appeared conscious of my manhood.

Such is the difference, and such is the change that is brought about by a trip of nine days in an Atlantic steamer. … For the first time in my life, I can say ‘I am truly free.’

He may put on the father’s old coat, but that is all; the immortal mind of the first wearer has gone to the tomb.

Property may be bequeathed but knowledge cannot.

Then let him who would be useful in his generation be up and doing.

With the growing population of slaves in the Southern States of America, there is a fearful increase of half whites, most of whose fathers are slaveowners and their mothers slaves.

Society does not frown upon the man who sits with his mulatto child upon his knee, whilst its mother stands a slave behind his chair.

The late Henry Clay, some years since, predicted that the abolition of negro slavery would be brought about by the amalgamation of the races.

What indignation from all the world is not due to the government and people who put forth all their strength and power to keep in existence such an institution?

Nature abhors it; the age repels it; and Christianity needs all her meekness to forgive it.

Clotel was sold for fifteen hundred dollars, but her purchaser was Horatio Green.

“Who do you belong to?” said a gentleman to an old black man, who came along leading a fine dog that he had been feeding.

“When I went to sleep last night, I belonged to Governor Lucas; but I understand dat he is bin gambling all night, so I don’t know who owns me dis morning.”

Such is the uncertainty of a slave’s position. He goes to bed at night the property of the man with whom he has lived for years, and gets up in the morning the slave of someone whom he has never seen before!

“

Oh, the doctors are licensed to commit murder, you know; and what’s the difference, whether one dies owing to the loss of blood, or taking too many pills?

For my own part, if I had to choose, I would rather submit to the former.”

The fairness of Clotel’s complexion was regarded with envy as well by the other servants as by the mistress herself. This is one of the hard features of slavery.

Today the woman is mistress of her own cottage; tomorrow she is sold to one who aims to make her life as intolerable as possible.

And be it remembered, that the house servant has the best situation which a slave can occupy.

“If we would not consider the best treatment which a slave receives good enough for us, we should not think he ought to be grateful for it. Everybody knows that slavery in its best and mildest form is wrong.

Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart.

Try him! Clank the chains in his ears, and tell him they are for him; give him an hour to prepare his wife and children for a life of slavery;

“

Our system of slavery is one of deception; and Sam, you see, has only been a good scholar.

However, he is as honest a fellow as you will find among the slave population here. If we would have them more honest, we should give them their liberty, and then the inducement to be dishonest would be gone.

“If not, they can go where they can live in freedom.

I will not be unjust because the state is.

”

After thanking Clotel for the great service she had done him in bringing him out of slavery, William bade her farewell.

The prejudice that exists in the Free States against coloured persons, on account of their colour, is attributable solely to the influence of slavery, and is but another form of slavery itself.

And even the slave who escapes from the Southern plantations is surprised, when he reaches the North, at the amount and withering influence of this prejudice.

“We don’t send a Jim Crow carriage but once a day, and that went this morning.” The “Jim Crow” carriage is the one in which the blacks have to ride.

Slavery is a school in which its victims learn much shrewdness, and William had been an apt scholar.

Without asking any more questions, the negro took his seat in one of the first-class carriages. He was soon seen and ordered out. Afraid to remain in the town longer, he resolved to go by that train;

“A quarter of a dollar per hundred,” answered the conductor.

“I weigh just one hundred and fifty pounds,” returned William, “and will pay you three eighths of a dollar.”

“Do you expect that you will pay only thirty-seven cents for your ride?”

The ceremony was performed by a Catholic clergyman, and the bridegroom has received with his wife a fortune of fifty or sixty thousand dollars.

“It seems that the fifty or sixty thousand dollars entirely covered the negro woman’s black skin, and the law prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites was laid aside for the occasion.”

Althesa felt proud, as well she might, at her husband’s taking such high ground in a slaveholding city like New Orleans.

Next in moral grandeur was this ship, to the great discoverer’s:

Columbus found a continent; the Mayflower brought the seedwheat of states and empire.

That is the Mayflower, with its servants of the living God, their wives and little ones, hastening to lay the foundations of nations in the accidental lands of the setting-sun.

“But,” said she, “if we send away the negroes because they are profligate and vicious, what sort of missionaries will they make? Why not send away the vicious among the whites for the same reason, and the same purpose?”

Death is a leveller, and neither age, sex, wealth, nor usefulness can avert when he is permitted to strike.

The most beautiful flowers soon fade, and droop, and die; this is also the case with man; his days are uncertain as the passing breeze.

“Well, who will you work for?” asked one of the company.

“I work for Betsy and the children, and I have a hard job of it at that,” replied the farmer, without a smile.

This answer, as a matter of course, set the new corner down as one upon whom the rest of the passengers could crack their jokes with the utmost impunity. “Are you an Odd Fellow?” asked one.

“I mean, do you belong to the order of Odd Fellows?”

“No, no; I belong to the order of married men.”

“No, I am a carpenter by trade.”

“Are you a Son of Temperance?”

“Bother you, no; I am a son of Mr. John Gosling.”

After a hearty laugh in which all joined, the subject of Temperance became the theme for discussion. In this the spectacled gent was at home. He soon showed that he was a New Englander, and went the whole length of the “Maine Law.”

but your robes’ righteousness are woven at Lowell and Manchester; your paradise is high per centum on factory stocks; your palms of victory and crowns of rejoicing are triumphs over a rival party in politics on the questions of banks and tariffs.

If you could, you would turn heaven into Birmingham, make every angel a weaver, and with the eternal din of looms and spindles drown all the anthems of the morning stars.

Ah! I know you Connecticut people like a book. No, no, all hoss; you can’t come it on me.”

They have tears to shed over Greece and Poland; they have an abundance of sympathy for “poor Ireland”; they can furnish a ship of war to convey the Hungarian refugees from a Turkish prison to the “land of the free and home of the brave.”

They boast that America is the “cradle of liberty”; if it is, I fear they have rocked the child to death.

The body of Clotel was picked up from the bank of the river, where it had been washed by the strong current, a hole dug in the sand, and there deposited, without either inquest being held over it, or religious service being performed.

For the crime of having a dark skin, my people suffer the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, and the ignominy of brutal servitude. We are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to make our instruction a criminal offence.

What right has one man to the bones, sinews, blood, and nerves of another? Did not one God make us all?

You say your fathers fought for freedom; so did we. You tell me that I am to be put to death for violating the laws of the land. Did not the American revolutionists violate the laws when they struck for liberty?

You say your fathers fought for freedom; so did we. You tell me that I am to be put to death for violating the laws of the land. Did not the American revolutionists violate the laws when they struck for liberty?

They were revolters, but their success made them patriots⁠—We were revolters, and our failure makes us rebels.

Had we succeeded, we would have been patriots too. Success makes all the difference. You make merry on the 4th of July; the thunder of cannon and ringing of bells announce it as the birthday of American independence.

Did not the American revolutionists violate the laws when they struck for liberty? They were revolters, but their success made them patriots—We were revolters, and our failure makes us rebels. Had we succeeded, we would have been patriots too.

Success makes all the difference.

You make merry on the 4th of July; the thunder of cannon and ringing of bells announce it as the birthday of American independence. Yet while these cannons are roaring and bells ringing, one-sixth of the people of this land are in chains and slavery.

Yet while these cannons are roaring and bells ringing, one-sixth of the people of this land are in chains and slavery. You boast that this is the ‘Land of the Free’; but a traditionary freedom will not save you.

It will not do to praise your fathers and build their sepulchres.

Worse for you that you have such an inheritance, if you spend it foolishly and are unable to appreciate its worth.

“Let me see the warrant again.” And after reading it over once more, he said,

“I see nothing in this paper which says I must supply thee with tools to open my door; if thou wishest to go in, thou must get a hammer elsewhere.”

The sheriff said, “I will go to a neighbouring farm and borrow something which will introduce us to Miss Dinah;” and he immediately went in search of tools.