Iola Leroy quotes

“It isn’t so good, but it might be better. I ain’t got nothing ’gainst my ole Miss, except she sold my mother from me.

And a boy ain’t nothin’ without his mother.

I forgive her, but I never forget her, and never expect to. But if she were the best woman on earth I would rather have my freedom than belong to her.

“It isn’t so good, but it might be better. I ain’t got nothing ’gainst my ole Miss, except she sold my mother from me. And a boy ain’t nothin’ without his mother. I forgive her, but I never forget her, and never expect to.

But if she were the best woman on earth I would rather have my freedom than belong to her.

Well, boys, here’s a chance for us just as soon as the Union army gets in sight. What will you do?”

All her putty talk war like porin water on a goose’s back. He’d jis’ bluff her off, an’ tell her she didn’t run dat plantation, and not for her to bring him any nigger news. I never thought ole Marster war good to her.

I often ketched her crying, an’ she’d say she had de headache, but I thought it war de heartache.

’Fore ole Marster died, she got so thin an’ peaked I war ’fraid she war gwine to die; but she seed him out. He war killed by a tree fallin’ on him, an’ ef eber de debil got his own he got him.

The Union had snapped asunder because it lacked the cohesion of justice, and the Nation was destined to pass through the crucible of disaster and defeat, till she was ready to clasp hands with the negro and march abreast with him to freedom and victory.

The Union army was encamping a few miles from C⸺, in North Carolina. Robert, being well posted on the condition of affairs, had stealthily contrived to call a meeting in Uncle Daniel’s cabin.

His heart grew buoyant with hope; the lightness of his heart gave elasticity to his step and sent the blood rejoicingly through his veins. Freedom was almost in his grasp, and the future was growing rose-tinted and rainbow-hued.

All the ties which bound him to his home were as ropes of sand, now that freedom had come so near.

When the army was afar off, he had appeared to be lighthearted and content with his lot. If asked if he desired his freedom, he would have answered, very naively, that he was eating his white bread and believed in letting well enough alone;

When it came, there was a stampede to its ranks of men ready to serve in any capacity, to labor in the tents, fight on the fields, or act as scouts.

It was a strange sight to see these black men rallying around the Stars and Stripes, when white men were trampling them under foot and riddling them with bullets.

Could he ever again glory in his American citizenship, when any white man, no matter how coarse, cruel, or brutal, could buy or sell her for the basest purposes?

Was it not true that the cause of a hapless people had become entangled with the lightnings of heaven, and dragged down retribution upon the land?

The field hospital was needing gentle, womanly ministrations, and Iola Leroy, released from the hands of her tormentors, was given a place as nurse; a position to which she adapted herself with a deep sense of relief.

“

I don’t think it was any worse to have held me in slavery than the blackest man in the South.

”

“You are right, Johnson.

The color of a man’s skin has nothing to do with the possession of his rights.

”

As to my poor thumbs, it did not seem to be taken into account what it would cost me to lose them. My ole Miss used to have a lot of books. She would let me read any one of them except a novel.

She wanted to take care of my soul, but she wasn’t taking care of her own.

”

I have no use for it. I don’t believe in it. I never did and I never will.

If any man wants to save my soul he ain’t got to beat my body.

That ain’t the kind of religion I’m looking for. I ain’t got a bit of use for it. Now, Captain, ain’t I right?”

“Captain,” said Robert, with a tone of bitterness in his voice, “what had we to be grateful for? For ages of poverty, ignorance, and slavery?

I think if anybody should be grateful, it is the people who have enslaved us and lived off our labor for generations.

Captain, I used to know a poor old woman who couldn’t bear to hear anyone play on the piano.”

In Iola he saw realized his ideal of the woman whom he was willing to marry. A woman, tender, strong, and courageous, and rescued only by the strong arm of his Government from a fate worse than death.

She was young in years, but old in sorrow; one whom a sad destiny had changed from a lighthearted girl to a heroic woman.

As he observed her, he detected an undertone of sorrow in her most cheerful words, and observed a quick flushing and sudden paling of her cheek, as if she were living over scenes that were thrilling her soul with indignation or chilling her heart with …

“

Nonsense, if I were as poor as a church mouse I would marry the woman I love.

”

“No.

Although the law makes her helpless in my hands, to me her defenselessness is her best defense.

”

I returned an initiated devotee to debasing pleasures. Years of my life were passed in foreign lands; years in which my soul slumbered and seemed pervaded with a moral paralysis; years, the memory of which fills my soul with sorrow and shame.

I went to the capitals of the old world to see life, but in seeing life I became acquainted with death, the death of true manliness and self-respect.

You look astonished; but I tell you, Alf, there is many a poor clodhopper, on whom are the dust and grime of unremitting toil, who feels more self-respect and true manliness than many of us with our family prestige, social position, and proud ancestral halls.

“So much the worse for our institution. If it is cruel to debase a hapless victim, it is an increase of cruelty to make her contented with her degradation.

Let me tell you, Alf, you cannot wrong or degrade a woman without wronging or degrading yourself.

”

“I don’t know.

I only know we are living in the midst of a magazine of powder, and it is not safe to enter it with a lighted candle.

”

“

That may be true; but I wasn’t reasoned into it, and I do not expect to be reasoned out of it.

”

The more intelligent of them have so learned to veil their feelings that you do not see the undercurrent of discontent beneath their apparent good humor and jollity. The more discontented they are, the more I respect them.

To me a contented slave is an abject creature.

I hope that I shall see the day when there will not be a slave in the land. I hate the whole thing from the bottom of my heart.”

“

Because I love liberty, not only for myself but for every human being.

Think how dear these children are to me; and then for the thought to be forever haunting me, that if you were dead they could be turned out of doors and divided among your relatives.

“No, I don’t think she does. She says she feels sorry for her, and that she would hate to be colored. ‘

It is so hard to be looked down on for what one can’t help.

’ ”

And that other one, who, running away and finding herself pursued, threw herself over the Long Bridge into the Potomac, was evidently not satisfied. I do not think the numbers who are coming North on the Underground Railroad can be very contented.

It is not natural for people to run away from happiness, and if they are so happy and contented, why did Congress pass the Fugitive Slave Bill?

”

“No, Doctor; that can never be. I am very grateful to you for your kindness.

I value your friendship, but neither gratitude nor friendship is love, and I have nothing more than those to give.

”

“Iola, my heart is longing to lift those burdens from your life.

Love, like faith, laughs at impossibilities.

I can conceive of no barrier too high for my love to surmount. Consent to be mine, as nothing else on earth is mine.”

Doctor, I did not choose my lot in life, but I have no other alternative than to accept it. The intense horror and agony I felt when I was first told the story are over.

Thoughts and purposes have come to me in the shadow I should never have learned in the sunshine.

I am constantly rousing myself up to suffer and be strong. I intend, when this conflict is over, to cast my lot with the freed people as a helper, teacher, and friend.

The intense horror and agony I felt when I was first told the story are over. Thoughts and purposes have come to me in the shadow I should never have learned in the sunshine.

I am constantly rousing myself up to suffer and be strong.

I intend, when this conflict is over, to cast my lot with the freed people as a helper, teacher, and friend. I have passed through a fiery ordeal, but this ministry of suffering will not be in vain.

I have passed through a fiery ordeal, but this ministry of suffering will not be in vain. I feel that my mind has matured beyond my years. I am a wonder to myself.

It seems as if years had been compressed into a few short months.

In telling you this, do you not, can you not, see that there is an insurmountable barrier between us?”

I had outrages heaped on me which might well crimson the cheek of honest womanhood with shame, but I never fell into the clutches of an owner for whom I did not feel the utmost loathing and intensest horror.

I have heard men talk glibly of the degradation of the negro, but there is a vast difference between abasement of condition and degradation of character.

I was abased, but the men who trampled on me were the degraded ones.”

I have heard men talk glibly of the degradation of the negro, but there is a vast difference between abasement of condition and degradation of character.

I was abased, but the men who trampled on me were the degraded ones.

”

Doctor, were you to give me a palace-like home, with velvet carpets to hush my tread, and magnificence to surround my way, I should miss her voice amid all other tones, her presence amid every scene.

Oh, you do not know how hungry my heart is for my mother!

Were I to marry you I would carry an aching heart into your home and dim its brightness. I have resolved never to marry until I have found my mother. The hope of finding her has colored all my life since I regained my freedom.

Since Harry had come North he had learned to feel profound pity for the slave.

But there is a difference between looking on a man as an object of pity and protecting him as such, and being identified with him and forced to share his lot.

To take his place with them on the arena of life was the test of his life, but love was stronger than pride.

When Iola opened her school she took pains to get acquainted with the parents of the children, and she gained their confidence and cooperation. Her face was a passport to their hearts.

Ignorant of books, human faces were the scrolls from which they had been reading for ages.

They had been the sunshine and shadow of their lives.

As they sang, the tears sprang to Iola’s eyes, and she said to herself, “

I am not despondent of the future of my people; there is too much elasticity in their spirits, too much hope in their hearts, to be crushed out by unreasoning malice.

”

I tole ole Miss Anderson’s daughter dat we wanted ter git some homes ob our ownselbs. She sez, ‘Den you won’t want ter work for us?’ Jis’ de same as ef we could eat an’ drink our houses.

I tell yer, Robby, dese white folks don’t know eberything.

”

“Well, some ob dem does, an’ some ob dem doesn’t. An’ wen dey preaches, I want dem to practice wat dey preach.

Some ob dem says dey’s called, but I jis’ thinks laziness called some ob dem.

An’ I thinks since freedom come deres some mighty pore sticks set up for preachers. Now dere’s John Anderson, Tom’s brudder; you ’member Tom.”

“No, chile; neber! neber! Wat fer you take me? I’d ruther lib in a corncrib.

Freedom needn’t keep me outer heben; an’ ef I’se sich a fool as ter lose my ’ligion cause I’se free, I oughtn’ ter git dere.

”

“Look a yere, boy, I’se been a preachin’ dese thirty years, an’ you come yere a tellin’ me ’bout studying yore ologies.

I larn’d my ’ology at de foot ob de cross.

You bin dar?”

“Well, I hopes she may fine her,” replied Salters. “

I war sole ’way from my mammy wen I war eighteen mont’s ole, an’ I wouldn’t know her now from a bunch ob turnips.

”

Did you know that Captain Sybil was killed in one of the last battles of the war? These young chaps, who are taking it so easy, don’t know the hardships through which we older ones passed.

But all the battles are not fought, nor all the victories won.

The colored man has escaped from one slavery, and I don’t want him to fall into another.

Cotton war bringin’ orful high prices den, but Lindy said to me, ‘Now, John, you’se got a lot ob money, an’ you’d better salt it down.

I’d ruther lib on a little piece ob lan’ ob my own dan a big piece ob somebody else’s.

Well, I says to Lindy, I dun know nuthin’ ’bout buyin’ lan’, an’ I’se ’fraid arter I’se done buyed it an’ put all de marrer ob dese bones in it, dat somebody’s far-off cousin will come an’ say de title ain’t good, an’ I’ll lose …

“You’re right thar, John,” said Uncle Daniel. “

White man’s so unsartain, black man’s nebber safe.

”

“

Well he ain’t too ole ter do right.

He ain’t no older dan Uncle Dan’el. An’ I yered dey offered him $500 ef he’d go on dere side. An’ Uncle Dan’el wouldn’t tech it. An’ dere’s Uncle Job’s wife; why didn’t she go dat way? She war down on Job’s meanness.”

“Uncle Robert,” said Iola, after she had been North several weeks, “

I have a theory that every woman ought to know how to earn her own living.

I believe that a great amount of sin and misery springs from the weakness and inefficiency of women.”

“Uncle Robert, I see no necessity for proclaiming that fact on the housetop. Yet I am resolved that nothing shall tempt me to deny it.

The best blood in my veins is African blood, and I am not ashamed of it.

”

“Uncle Robert, I think that every woman should have some skill or art which would insure her at least a comfortable support.

I believe there would be less unhappy marriages if labor were more honored among women.

”

“Well, my dear, do not make me a hero for a single act. I am grateful for the care Miss Leroy gave our Daisy.

Money can buy services, but it cannot purchase tender, loving sympathy.

I was also determined to let my employees know that I, not they, commanded my business. So, do not crown me a hero until I have won a niche in the temple of fame.

We irritate the South by our criticisms, and, while I confess that there is much that is reprehensible in their treatment of colored people, yet if our Northern civilization is higher than theirs we should ‘criticise by creation.’

We should stamp ourselves on the South, and not let the South stamp itself on us.

When we have learned to treat men according to the complexion of their souls, and not the color of their skins, we will have given our best contribution towards the solution of the negro problem.”

We should stamp ourselves on the South, and not let the South stamp itself on us.

When we have learned to treat men according to the complexion of their souls, and not the color of their skins, we will have given our best contribution towards the solution of the negro problem.

”

“Is it possible? I am very glad to hear it. It has been said that every cloud has its silver lining, and the silver lining of our war cloud is the redemption of a race and the reunion of severed hearts.

War is a dreadful thing; but worse than the war was the slavery which preceded it.

”

“And our work,” said Dr. Gresham, “is to build over the desolations of the past a better and brighter future. The great distinction between savagery and civilization is the creation and maintenance of law.

A people cannot habitually trample on law and justice without retrograding toward barbarism.

But I am hopeful that time will bring us changes for the better; that, as we get farther away from the war, we will outgrow the animosities and prejudices engendered by slavery. The shortsightedness of our fathers linked the negro’s destiny to ours.

“Doctor,” continued Iola, “

I do not think life’s highest advantages are those that we can see with our eyes or grasp with our hands.

To whom today is the world most indebted—to its millionaires or to its martyrs?”

And yet in this city where a number of charities are advertised, I do not think there is one of them which, in appealing to the public, talks more religion than the managers of this asylum.

This prejudice against the colored race environs our lives and mocks our aspirations.

”

“Doctor, I have painted it with my heart’s blood.

It is easier to outgrow the dishonor of crime than the disabilities of color.

You have created in this country an aristocracy of color wide enough to include the South with its treason and Utah with its abominations, but too narrow to include the best and bravest colored man who bared his breast to the bullets of the enemy …

“I do not think so; and if I did it would not hinder me from doing all in my power to help them. I do not expect all the finest traits of character to spring from the hotbeds of slavery and caste.

What matters it if they do forget the singer, so they don’t forget the song?

No, Doctor, I don’t think that I could best serve my race by forsaking them and marrying you.”

“I do not think so; and if I did it would not hinder me from doing all in my power to help them.

I do not expect all the finest traits of character to spring from the hotbeds of slavery and caste.

What matters it if they do forget the singer, so they don’t forget the song? No, Doctor, I don’t think that I could best serve my race by forsaking them and marrying you.”

“Oh, yes,” answered Iola, seriously, “

I believe in young people having amusements and recreations; but the times are too serious for us to attempt to make our lives a long holiday.

”

When I come in contact with Christless prejudices, I feel that my life is too much a part of the Divine plan, and invested with too much intrinsic worth, for me to be the least humiliated by indignities that beggarly souls can inflict.

I feel more pitiful than resentful to those who do not know how much they miss by living mean, ignoble lives.

”

“My heart,” said Iola, “is full of hope for the future.

Pain and suffering are the crucibles out of which come gold more fine than the pavements of heaven, and gems more precious than the foundations of the Holy City.

”

Time alone will tell whether or not the virus of slavery and injustice has too fully permeated our Southern civilization for a complete recovery. Nations, honeycombed by vice, have fallen beneath the weight of their iniquities.

Justice is always uncompromising in its claims and inexorable in its demands.

The laws of the universe are never repealed to accommodate our follies.”

Nations, honeycombed by vice, have fallen beneath the weight of their iniquities. Justice is always uncompromising in its claims and inexorable in its demands.

The laws of the universe are never repealed to accommodate our follies.

”

Authors belonging to the white race have written good racial books, for which I am deeply grateful, but it seems to be almost impossible for a white man to put himself completely in our place.

No man can feel the iron which enters another man’s soul.

”

He could not have retained these had he ignored his mother and lived under a veil of concealment, constantly haunted by a dread of detection. The gain would not have been worth the cost.

It were better that he should walk the ruggedest paths of life a true man than tread the softest carpets a moral cripple.

”