 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
. . . SLANDER see: "CALUMNY" see: "COMMUNICATION" see: "HURTING (SOMEONE)" see: "LIBEL" see: "RUMOR" Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him till he becomes invisible. --Joseph Addison (16721719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. "The Spectator", no. 122 [20 July 1711] To think all you say, is but candor; To say all you think, would be slander. --William Allingham (18241899) Irish man of letters and poet. _Blackberries Picked Off Many Bushes_ [1884] Slander is a poison which extinguishes charity, both in the slanderer and in the persons who listen to it. --St. Bernard of Clairvaux (10901153) Cistercian monk and mystic; the founder and abbot of the abbey of Clairvaux. Attributed in "Latter Day-Saints' Herald", Plano, Ill. [15 September 1875]. All slander Must still be strangled in its birth; or time Will soon conspire to make it strong enough To overcome the truth. --Sir William Davenant [also spelled D'Avenant] (16061668) English poet, playwright, and theater manager. Quoted in Mrs. Gore _The Dowager; or, The New School for Scandal_ [1840]. If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: 'He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.' --Epictetus (55135) Greek philosopher. _The Enchiridion_ [c. 135] The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others. --Henry Fielding (17071754) English novelist and dramatist. _The Temple Beau_ I, i [1729] He that flings Dirt at another dirtieth himself most. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] You needn't love your enemy, but if you refrain from telling lies about him, you are doing well enough. --Edgar Watson Howe (18541937) American journalist and author. _Country Town Sayings_ [1911] Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Letter to Secretary Stanton, refusing to dismiss Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair [18 July 1864]. [When told that someone had spoken ill of him:] No matter: I will live so that none shall believe him. --Plato (427?347 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Attributed in Bronson Alcott _Concord Days_ [1872]. Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears. --Titus Maccius Plautus (254184 BC) Roman comic dramatist. Character Callipho, in "Pseudolus", act 1, sc. 5. To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness. --Edgar Allan Poe (18091849) American poet and short-story writer. Quoted in John H. Ingram _The Works of Edgar Allan Poe_ [3rd ed., 1883], vol. III "Marginalia". I never yet heard man or woman much abused, that I was not inclined to think the better of them; and to transfer any suspicion or dislike to the person who appeared to take delight in pointing out the defects of a fellow-creature. --Jane Porter (17761850) Scottish novelist. In _Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney_ [1807]. A tongue prone to slander is the proof of a depraved mind. --Publilius Syrus (8543 B.C.) Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave. Quoted in Alfred Henderson _Latin Proverbs and Quotations_ [1869]. A wound from a tongue is worse than a wound from a sword; for the latter affects only the body, the former, the spirit, the soul. --Pythagoras (582486 B.C.) Ionian mathematician and philosopher. Attributed in James Comper Gray _The Biblical Museum_ [vol. V, 1878]. I complained before a learned man that someone had accused me of corruption. He said, 'Put him to shame by your good conduct.' --Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 12131292) Iranian poet. _The Maxims of Sa'di_ tr. Mehdi Nakosteen [1977] When the tongue is the weapon, a man may strike where he cannot reach; and a word shall do execution both further and deeper than the mightiest blow. --Bishop Robert South (16341716) English theologian and author. Attributed in Samuel Johnson _A Dictionary of the English Language_ [1805 ed.]. - We should not believe every word and suggestion, but should carefully consider all things in accordance with the will of God. For such is the weakness of human nature, alas, that evil is often more readily believed and spoken of another than good. But perfect men do not easily believe every tale that is told them, for they know that man's nature is prone to evil, and his words to deception. --Thomas a' Kempis (13801471) German ascetical writer. _The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420], bk. 1, ch. 4, "On Prudence in Action" Do not let your peace depend on what people say of you, for whether they speak good or ill of you makes no difference to what you are. True peace and joy is to be found in Me alone. He who is neither anxious to please nor afraid to displease men enjoys true peace. --Thomas a' Kempis (13801471) German ascetical writer. _The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420], bk. 3, ch. 28, "Against Slander" - It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Following the Equator_ [1897] "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar", ch. XLV He slandered the world in revenge for his complete lack of success in it. --Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (16941778) French writer and philosopher. _Zadig_ [1747], tr. H.I. Woolf [1949] ----- aspersion (noun) [κ-'spκr-zhκn] 1: The act of sprinkling or spattering, especially the sprinkling of water in religious ceremonies. (The sense of spattering with mud or dirt has given way to Definition 2.) 2: An act of slander, impugning, or besmirching (a reputation). calumny [KAL-uhm-nee], noun: 1. False accusation of a crime or offense, intended to injure another's reputation. 2. Malicious misrepresentation; slander. denigrate [DEN-i-greyt], verb: To attack the character or reputation of; defame. traduce [ruh-DOOS; -DYOOS], transitive verb: To expose to contempt or shame by means of false statements or misrepresentation; to represent as blamable; to vilify. Syn.: Calumniate; vilify; defame; slander vilify (verb) ['vi-lκ-fI] Defame, malign, utter slanderous statements against someone. The noun is "vilification".  ;void(0)) SLAVERY . . see: "THE CIVIL WAR" see: "INEQUALITY" see: "LINCOLN (ABRAHAM)" see: "OPPRESSION" see: "EVIL" for other related links I did more for the Russian serf in giving him land as well as personal liberty, than America did for the negro slave set free by the proclamation of President Lincoln. --Alexander II [Aleksandr Nikolayevich] (18181881) Emperor of Russia [1855-81]. Interview of 17 August 1879 in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 676 [2004]. Cohan & Major add: The Russian serfs were landless peasants in bondage to their masters for life. They were freed by the 'Tsar Liberator', Alexander II, in 1861, the year before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. But what heart could be so hard as not to be pierced with piteous feeling to see that company [of African prisoners]? For some kept their heads low and their faces bathed in tears, looking upon one another; others stood groaning ... But to increase their suffering still more there now arrived those who had charge of the division of the captives, who began to separate one from another, in order to make an equal partition of the fifths; and then it was needful to part fathers from sons, husbands from wives, brothers from brothers. --Gomes Eannes de Azurara (c. 14101474) Portuguese chronicler. _The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_ [1453] in M. J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 315 [2004]. Cohan & Major explain: The expedition of 1445 that brought back these 235 captives was the first to be privately promoted. Its aim was to return a profit by plunder and slave-raiding, the crown (in the person of Prince Henry) being entitled to one-fifth of the proceeds. Azurara and the crowd felt shock and sympathy at what was then a novel spectacle. A decade later such scenes would be taken for granted. Such was the beginning of the Portuguese trade in African slaves, which until this time had been an Arab monopoly. - When the slavery issue came to a boil, [Robert E. ] Lee made it quite clear where he stood. He freed his own slaves and wrote, 'Slavery is a moral and political evil in any society, a greater evil to the white man than the black.' There are some problems of conscience, however, that cannot be so cleanly solved, and when the war started Lee faced an acute moral conflict. It was always a shock to recall that Lincoln offered him the command of the *Northern* forces. He could have taken it on principle because he firmly believed that secession was unconstitutional. But through five generations all his loyalties and affections were with Virginia. He spent a day and a night pacing around the bedroom of his house and looking down the slope of the hill that is the last short stretch of Virgina before the Potamac River and the North begins. At the end of this agony, he came downstairs and wrote a letter to his son, in which he said he believed in the Union and could 'anticipate no greater calamity' than its dissolution. 'Still, a union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets . . . has no charm for me [and] if the Union is disssolved . . . I shall return to my native state and, save in defense, will draw my sword no more.' --Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (19082004) British-born American broadcater and journalist. _America_ [1973] - - In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky - her grand old woods her fertile fields her beautiful rivers her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slave-holding, robbery and wrong, when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing, and led to reproach myself that any thing could fall from my lips in praise of such a land. America will not allow her children to love her. She seems bent on compelling those who would be her warmest friends, to be her worst enemies. May God give her repentance before it is too late, is the ardent prayer of my heart. I will continue to pray, labor and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity. --Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.18181895) American abolitionist, reformer, and writer. [1 January 1846 letter to William Lloyd Garrison.] No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. --Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.18181895) American abolitionist, reformer, and writer. Speech at Market Hall, New York, N.Y. [22 October 1847]. No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. --Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey] (c.18181895) American abolitionist, reformer, and writer. Speech at Civil Rights Meeting, Washington D.C. [22 October 1883.] - If slavery is not distinctly Western, what is? The movement to end slavery! Abolition is an exclusively Western institution. The historian J.M. Roberts writes, "No civilization once dependent on slavery has ever been able to eradicate it, except the Western." [...] Never in the history of the world, outside of the West, has a group of people eligible to be slave owners mobilized against the institution of slavery. This distinctive Western attitude is reflected by Abraham Lincoln: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master." --Dinesh D'Souza (b. 1961) American author. _What's So Great About America_ [2002] I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "The Assault upon Mr. Sumner's Speech" [26 May 1856] (Sumner often spoke out against slavery.) That which you would not suffer yourself, seek not to lay upon others. You would not wish to be a slave look to it that others be not slaves to you. --Epictetus (55135) Greek philosopher. _Fragment 43_, in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.)_History in Quotations_ [2004]. Cohan & Major note that: Epictetus was a slave and was allowed to attend philosophy lectures. When he was later freed he became a teacher of Stoicism. His lectures were collected and published and had a strong influence on Emperor Marcus Aurelius. - The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship's cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn him- self, most suffocated us. This produced constant perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration ... and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the unprovident avarice, as I may call it, of the purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered a scene of horror almost inconceivable. --Olaudah Equiano (c. 17501797) West African sold into slavery and later freed. _Equiano's Travels_ [1789, 1967 edn.] p. 78 [I was sold in Barbados] after the usual manner, which is this: on a signal given [as the beat of a drum], the buyers rush at once into the yard, where the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamour with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenance of the buyers serve not a little to increase the apprehensions of the terrified Africans ... in this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see one another again. --Olaudah Equiano (c. 17501797) West African sold into slavery and later freed. _Equiano's Travels_ [1789, 1967 edn.] p. 63 & see *Negroes for Sale* A cargo of very fine stout Men and Women in good order and fit for immediate service, just imported from the windward Coast of Africa, in the Ship _Two Brothers_ Conditions are one half Cash or Produce, the other half payable the first of January next, giving bond and Security if required. The sale to be opened at 10 o'clock each Day, in Mr. Bourdeaux's Yard, at No. 8 on the Bay. May 19, 1784 John Mitchell. --American advertisement for the sale of slaves [1784] - Who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave. --Euripides (485?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _The Phoenician Virgins_ I *will be* as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. [...] I am in earnestI will not equivocate I will not excuseI will not retreat a single inch AND I will be heard. --William Lloyd Garrison (18051879) American abolitionist and reformer. In the first issue of the "Liberator" [1 January 1831]. If a slave says to his master, 'You are not my master,' the master shall cut off his ear. --Hammurabi Code (21st cent B.C.) Babylonia This abomination must have an end, and there is a superior bench reserved in Heaven for those who hasten it. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [1801-09]. In a letter to Edward Rutledge [14 July 1787]. ^ [Of the Missouri Compromise:] Hence [Henry] Clay, by furious and skillful activity behind the scenes and on the House floor, ensured that Maine and Missouri were admitted together, along with a compromise amendment prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36.30 (March 1820). And by even greater prodigies of skill he resolved the constitutional question provoked by the extremists in the Missouri convention by what is known as the Second Missouri Compromise, the local legislature solemnly pledging never to enact laws depriving any citizen of his rights under the US Constitution (February 1821). As a result President Monroe was able to sign Missouri's admission to the Union in August. This was the first of three compromises Clay brokered (the others were 1833 and 1850) which defused the periodic explosion between North and South and postponed the Civil War for forty years. Indeed Senator Henry S. Foote, who had watched Clay weave his magic spells to disarm the angry protagonists in Congress, later said: 'Had there been one such man in the Congress of the United States as Henry Clay in 1860-1, there would, I am sure, have been no Civil War.' --Paul Johnson (b. 1928) British historian. _A History of the American People_, p. 325 [1997] ^ If men and women are in chains anywhere in the world, then freedom is endangered everywhere. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy (19171963) American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1961-63]. Campaign statement, Washington, D.C., [2 October 1960]. In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare and lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild & melting influence of Christianity, than the storms & tempests of fiery Controversy. --Robert E. Lee (18071870) American Confederate general. Letter to Mary Curtis Lee [27 December 1856]. - I hold it to be a paramount duty of us in the free states, due to the Union of the States, and perhaps to liberty itself (paradox though it may seem), to let the slavery of the other states alone, while, on the other hand, I hold it to be equally clear that we should never knowingly lend ourselves, directly or indirectly, to prevent that slavery from dying a natural death. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Letter to Williamson Durley [3 October 1845]. I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery. I am not a Know-nothing; that is certain. How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that *all men are created equal.* We now practically read it, *all men are created equal except Negroes.* When the Know-nothings get control, it will read, *all men are created equal except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.* When it comes to this I will prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the basic alloy of hypocrisy. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Letter to Joshua F. Speed [24 August 1855]. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Speech at the Republican state convention nominating him to run for U.S. senator, Springfied, Ill. [17 July 1858]. I have no purpose, either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. In his first debate with Stephen Douglas, Ottawa, Illinois [21 August 1858]. I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. [...] I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Charleston, Ill. [18 September 1858]. [H]e who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God they cannot long retain it. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Letter to Henry Pierce et al. [6 April 1859]. I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. In the Emancipation Proclamation [1 January 1863]. I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [1861-65]. Letter to A.G. Hodges [4 April 1864]. - An ex-consul has been deliberately murdered by a slave in his own home. None of his fellow-slaves prevented or betrayed the murderer, though the senatorial decree threatening the whole household with execution still stands ... Exemplary punishment always contains an element of injustice. But individual wrongs are outweighed by the advantage of the community. --Gaius Cassius Longinus, in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_ [2004]. Cohan & Major note that: When Pedanius Secundus, the city prefect, was murdered by one of his slaves in AD 61 the ancient custom that all household slaves should be executed was challenged by the populace. In a debate in the senate Longinus won the day with his arguments in favour of applying the full rigour of the law. The crowd tried to prevent the execution from being carried out, and detachments of soldiers had to be brought in to ensure that the 400 slaves could be taken to their execution. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. "Stanzas on Freedom" [1843] Some gentlemen may, indeed, object to the slave trade as inhuman and impious; let us consider that if our colonies are to be maintained and cultivated, which can only be done by African Negroes, it is surely better to supply ourselves with those labourers in British bottoms [ships], than purchase them through the medium of French, Dutch or Danish factors. --Temple Luttrell Speech in House of Commons [23 May 1777], quoted in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 396 [2004]. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever. --Thomas Babington Macaulay (18001859) English politician and historian. "John Milton" in _The Edinburgh Review_ [August 1825]. Direct slavery is just as much the pivot of bourgeois industry as machinery, credits, etc. Without slavery you have no cotton; without cotton you have no modern industry. It is slavery that gave the colonies their value; it is the colonies that created world trade, and it is world trade that is the precondition of large- scale industry. Without slavery, North America, the most progressive of countries, would be transformed into a patriarchal country. Wipe North America off the map of the world, and you would have anarchy the complete decay of modern commerce and civilization. Cause slavery to disappear and you will have wiped America off the map of nations. --Karl Marx (18181883) German political philosopher. _The Poverty of Philosophy_ [1847] pp. 111-12 - It is public opinion and knowledge that no end of deception is practised and a thousand acts of robbery and violence are committed in the course of bartering and carrying off Negroes from their country and bringing them to the Indies and to Spain ... since the Portuguese and Spaniards pay so much for a Negro, they go out to hunt one another without the pretext of a war, as if they were deer. They embark four and five hundred of them in a boat, which sometimes, is not a cargo boat. The very stench is enough to kill most of them, and, indeed, very many die. The wonder is that 20 per cent of them are not lost. --Fray Tomas de Mercado _Suma de tratos y contratos_ [written 1569, pub. 1587], in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 392 [2004]. Cohan & Major add: The Spanish Dominican friar did not question the institution of slavery although he deplored the way it worked. He had himself observed the horrifying conditions under which the slaves were transported. - I went to see the Turks' market, which they call a bazaar and which is where the poor Christians captured on Sicily, Malta and Gozo are sold to the highest bidders. In accordance with ancient oriental custom, slave dealers are allowed to parade their captives quite naked to show that they have no physical defects, and to have their eyes and teeth inspected as if they were horses. --Nicolas de Nicolay (15171583) French traveler. Referring to the slave market in Tripoli, North Africa, quoted in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 262 [2004]. Ranaway, a negro woman and two children; a few days before she went off, *I burnt her with a hot iron*, on the left side of her face, I tried to make the letter M. --Micajah Ricks Notice in the _North Carolina Raleigh Standard_ [18 July 1839]. Can man be free if woman be a slave? --Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822) English poet. _The Revolt of Islam_, 2. 43 [1817] All Government without the Consent of the Governed is the very Definition of Slavery. --Jonathan Swift (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. "A Letter to the Whole People of Ireland" [13 October 1724] When the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted ... [negroes] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings ... altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit ... The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution ... It is the opinion of the court that the Act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void. --Roger B. Taney (17771864) Fifth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Decision in the Dred Scott case [7 March 1857], in M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 585 [2004]. Cohan & Major add: This momentous judgement annulled the Missouri Compromise of 1820, whereby slavery was barred north of latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes, and widened the gulf between North and South. - I vividly remember seeing a dozen black men and women chained to one another, once, and lying in a group on the pavement, awaiting shipment to the Southern slave market. Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Autobiography_ [1924 ed.] - I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure, and imperceptible degrees. --George Washington (17321799) American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775-83] and first president of the United States [1789-97]. Letter to John Francis Mercer [9 September 1786]. Upon the decease [of] my wife, it is my Will and desire, th[at] all the Slaves which I hold in [my] *own right,* shall receive their free[dom]. --George Washington (17321799) American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775-83] and first president of the United States [1789-97]. In his Will [9 July 1790]. - ----- manumit (verb) ['mζn-yu-mit] To release from slavery or other unpleasant situation. odalisque (noun) ['o-d(κ)-lisk] A concubine in a harem, a female slave. end page | SACRED PLACES - SANTA CLAUS | SARCASM - SCHOOL | SCIENCE - SCULPTURE | SEA (THE) - SEEING | SELF - SELF-ESTEEM | SELF-EXAMINATION - SELLING OUT | SENATE (THE U.S.) - SERIOUSNESS | SEX | SEX SYMBOLS - SHEEP | SHIPS - SHYNESS | SICKNESS - SILENCE | SILLINESS - SINGING | SINGLE-MINDEDNESS - SKY | SLANDER - SLAVERY | SLEEP - SMILES | SMOKING - SOCIETY | SOLDIERS - SOPHISTICATION | SORROW - SOUTH SEA | SPACE - SPAM | SPEECH | SPEECHES - SPENDTHRIFTS | SPIDERS - SPY | SPORTS & SPORTSMANSHIP | STAGE (THE) - STERILIZATION | STOCK MARKET - STRANGERS | STRENGTH - SUBURBS | SUCCESS | SUFFERING - SUMMER | SUN - SUPREME COURT | SURPRISE - SYSTEM (THE) | | R | S | T | U - END | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
||