115 Abolition Quotes

Following is our list of abolition quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about slave abolition.

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Famous Abolition Quotes

We Abolition Women are turning the world upside down. — Angelina Grimke

So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. — Robert E. Lee

The abolition of the death penalty is making us a civilized society. It shows we actually do mean business when we say we have reverence for life. — Desmond Tutu

Charity should be abolished; and be replaced by justice. — Norman Bethune

Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery. — Maya Angelou

From that date the abandonment of the older State proceeded with a rapidity never before known, and with it grew the domestic slave trade and the pro-slavery feeling. — Henry Charles Carey

If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him. - Mikhail Bakunin

If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him. — Mikhail Bakunin

The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. — John F. Kennedy

I don't want a moratorium on the death penalty. I want the abolition of it. I can't understand why a country [USA] that's so committed to human rights doesn't find the death penalty an obscenity. — Desmond Tutu

Among the expected glories of the Constitution, next to the abolition of Slavery was that of Rum. — George Clymer

Animal Rights is now the greatest Social Justice issue since the abolition of slavery. — Philip Wollen

There must be no compromise with slavery - none whatever. Nothing is gained, everything is lost, by subordinating principle to expedience. — William Lloyd Garrison

Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery! — John Brown

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion. — Karl Marx

In such a condition of affairs, the practical difference between the abolitionist and the sympathizer, to the man who lost his slave and could not recover it, was very nebulous. — John Sergeant Wise

Short Abolition Quotes

  • You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know. — William Wilberforce
  • Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. — Frederick Douglass
  • The plane of consistency is the abolition of all metaphor; all that consists is Real. — Gilles Deleuze
  • I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment. — James Madison
  • This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war. — Andrew Jackson
  • The only solution to the contradictions of capitalism entails the abolition of wage labour. — David Harvey
  • I advocate the abolition of all religions, without setting up anything new of the kind. — Sayings
  • The day is not distant when we must bear and adopt [the abolition of slavery], or worse will follow. — Thomas Jefferson
  • I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist. — Abraham Lincoln
  • The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. — Karl Marx

Slavery Abolition Quotes

I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. — George Washington

There is no justification for the common claim that Christianity was responsible for the abolition of slavery. The Negro slave trade - a far more infamous practice than slavery in the ancient world - was initiated, carried on and defended by Christian men in Christian countries. — Margaret E. Knight

It is over one hundred years since the abolition of slavery. The Negro people in the United States have taken plenty and they have reached a stage where they have decided that they are not going to take any more. — C. L. R. James

We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time. — George W. Bush

As to a thorough eradication of prostitution, nothing can accomplish that save a complete transvaluation of all accepted values--especially the moral ones--coupled with the abolition of industrial slavery. — Emma Goldman

Recognition of the modes of existence of technical objects must be the result of philosophic consideration; what philosophy has to achieve in this respect is analogous to what the abolition of slavery achieved in affirming the worth of the individual human being. — Gilbert Simondon

It was a marvel, an enigma in abolition latitudes, that the slaves did not rise en-masse, at the beginning of hostilities. — Rebecca Latimer Felton

Women have always struggled with their men-folk for the abolition of slavery, the liberation of countries from colonialism, the dismantling of apartheid and the attainment of peace. It is now the turn of men to join women in their struggle for equality. — Gertrude Mongella

On this International Day for the Abolition of Slavery let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts to build societies in which slavery truly is a term for the history books. — Ban Ki-moon

Slave Abolition Quotes

So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition. — William Wilberforce

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustices and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham. — Frederick Douglass

This huge and terrible industry [the slave trade] was blessed by all churches and for a long time aroused absolutely no religious protest. . . . In the eighteenth century, a few dissenting Mennonites and Quakers in America began to call for abolition, as did some freethinkers like Thomas Paine. — Christopher Hitchens

Because of its exceptional capacity for self-criticism, the West took the initiative in abolishing slavery; the calls for abolition did not resonate even in black Africa, where rival African tribes took black prisoners to be sold as slaves in the West. — Ibn Warraq

When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for being the biggest slave-holding-supporting institution on the planet and sticking with racism for the century after the abolition of slavery? — Mark Steyn

Abolition Of Slavery Quotes

The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. — Thomas Jefferson

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. — Benjamin Franklin

For centuries the Bible's emphasis on compassion and love for our neighbor has inspired institutional and governmental expressions of benevolent outreach such as private charity, the establishment of schools and hospitals, and the abolition of slavery. — Ronald Reagan

I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery. — George Washington

Should slavery be abolished there, (and it is an event, which, from these circumstances, we may reasonably expect to be produced in time) let it be remembered, that the Quakers will have had the merit of its abolition. — Thomas Clarkson

What Thomas DiLorenzo misses is that the other abolitions were either very limited as in the liberation of the serfs by Alexander II or far away from the metropolitan center of those nations - the French and British abolitions were of slavery in the West Indies. — Allen C. Guelzo

It was Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Wendell Phillips - these were the people who made abolition real. Now, none of you guys is in favor of slavery, right? — Bill Ayers

If you didn't have the amalgam of Blacks and African-type sensibility and European sensibility, you wouldn't have jazz. Even in the negative and in the positive ways - if there was no slavery and the abolition of slavery, there would be no jazz. — Wynton Marsalis

Woman--with a capital letter--should by now have ceased to be a specialty. There should be no more need of "movements" on her behalf, and agitations for her advancement and developmentthan for the abolition of negro slavery in the United States. — Mary Virginia Terhune

Those who advocate either slavery or income taxation should be ashamed of themselves. Genuine freedom entails the abolition, not the reform, of income taxation and the IRS, just as genuine freedom entailed the abolition, not the reform, of slavery. — Jacob G. Hornberger

Abolitionist Quotes

I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail. — Sojourner Truth

You [men] are our protectors, is not true; for if you were, who would there be to protect us from? — Mary Edwards Walker

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

If, while I hear the wild shriek of the slave mother robbed of her little ones, I do not open my mouth, am I not guilty? — Lucy Stone

Nowhere is wisdom more necessary than in the guidance of charitable impulses. Meaning well is only half our duty; Thinking right is the other, and equally important, half. — Samuel Gridley Howe

If I had to write down the most important people in the history of this planet, No.1 would be (abolitionist) John Brown. Why? Because he's a white man who said he would die for the cause, because they could take him, but they weren't going to take his grandchildren. That brother was beautiful. — Dick Gregory

Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties. — Pete Seeger

That a majority of the Abolitionists in this place would patronize a free labor store, in preference to others, I do not doubt; but we do not muster money in Cincinnati. — Gamaliel Bailey

One can cite cases of Negroes who opposed emancipation and denounced the abolitionists. — Carter G. Woodson

There is a large body of abolitionists in Clinton and Clark Counties in this state, and in Wayne County Indiana, that would undoubtedly support such a store, but whether their support would be sufficient, I am unable to say. — Gamaliel Bailey

Abolishing Slavery Quotes

My crime is that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is that when I say that freedom is of God and slavery is of the devil, I mean just what I say. My fanaticism is that I insist on the American people abolishing slavery, or ceasing to prate on the rights of man. — William Lloyd Garrison

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hold a vision of this blue green planet, safe and in balance. At the end of the Fossil Fuel Era, we are emerging to a new reality. We are ready to make the next leap - as momentous as abolishing slavery or giving women the vote. — Elizabeth May

Christianity, by introducing into Europe the truest principles of humanity, universal benevolence, and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil slavery. Let us who profess the same religion practice its precepts... by agreeing to this duty. — Richard Henry Lee

Abolishing slavery leads to slaves without masters — George Fitzhugh

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. — Patrick Henry

Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy it implies, then the "division" of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form. — Simone de Beauvoir

[T]he only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it. — Jeff Cooper

No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man. — Thomas Huxley

People Writing About Abolition

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Read quotes by Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu
quotes on ubuntu, peace and forgiveness

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Read quotes by Karl Marx

Karl Marx
quotes on capitalism, leadership and money

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Read quotes by Angelina Grimke

Angelina Grimke
quotes on slavery

38 257
Read quotes by Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee
quotes on civil war, war and leadership

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Read quotes by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou
quotes on life, success and education

1034 24554
Read quotes by Henry Charles Carey

Henry Charles Carey
quotes on education, slavery and leadership

19 173

More Abolition Quotes

The Curse of poverty has no justification in our age...The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

When we ask for the abolition of the State and its organs we are always told that we dream of a society composed of men better than they are in reality. But no; a thousand times, no. All we ask is that men should not be made worse than they are, by such institutions! — Peter Kropotkin

I advocate revolutionary changes...an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty — Assata Shakur

It is time for the rest of the world to join ... in demanding that ALL the nuclear weapons states -including Israel, India and Pakistan, but above all the US and Russia - negotiate concrete steps on a definite time-table toward the global, inspected abolition of nuclear weapons. — Daniel Ellsberg

While we see the Course of the final abolition of human Slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who Chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a Single day. — Robert E. Lee

The abolition of the class struggle does not mean the abolition of the need to struggle as a principle of development. — Antonio Gramsci

If democracy, in essence, means the abolition of class domination, then why should not a socialist minister charm the whole bourgeois world by orations on class collaboration? — Vladimir Lenin

The Anarchists answer that the abolition of the State will leave in existence a defensive association, resting no longer on a compulsory but on a voluntary basis, which will restrain invaders by any means that may prove necessary. — Benjamin Tucker

Even granting that we [humans] face greater harm than laboratory animals presently endure if ... research on these animals is stopped, the animal rights view will not be satisfied with anything less than total abolition. — Tom Regan

Human beings are not property. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude' - ring true. — Kofi Annan

I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself... I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal. — Roger Nash Baldwin

Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever in human history. — Charles Krauthammer

My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs). — J. R. R. Tolkien

I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes. — Ernest Hemingway

With the abolition of otium and of the ego no aloof thinking is left. ... Without otium philosophical thought is impossible, cannot be conceived or understood. — Max Horkheimer

All good men wish the entire abolition of slavery, as soon as it can take place with safety to the public, and for the lasting good of the present wretched race of slaves. The only possible step that could be taken towards it by the convention was to fix a period after which they should not be imported. — Oliver Ellsworth

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart. — Mahatma Gandhi

Anarchism as a political philosophy seeks to dissolve all forms of authority and power, and if possible, wishes their complete abolition. — Peter Marshall

The man that gets drunk is little else than a fool, And is in the habit, no doubt, of advocating for Home Rule; But the best Home Rule for him, as far as I can understand, Is the abolition of strong drink from the land. — William Topaz McGonagall

Private property is a means, and neither its abolition nor its unrestricted right should be an end in itself. — Kenneth E. Boulding

'Til the infallibility of human judgements shall have been proved to me, I shall demand the abolition of the penalty of death. — Marquis De Sade

I believe that in the end the abolition of war, the maintenance of world peace, the adjustment of international questions by pacific means will come through the force of public opinion, which controls nations and peoples. — Frank B. Kellogg

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