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Solomon Northup QUOTES

Solomon Northup QUOTES

1 " At such times, the heart of man turns instictively towards his Maker. In prosperity, and whenever there is nothing to injure or make him afraid, he remembers Him not, and is ready to defy Him; but place him in the midst of dangers, cut him off from human aid, let the grave open before him, then it is, in the time of his tribulation, that the scoffer and unbelieving man turns to God for help, feeling there is no other hope, or refuge, or safety, save in his protecting arm. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

2 " It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives. He cannot withstand the influence of habit and associations that surround him. Taught from earliest childhood, by all that he sees and hears that the rod is for the slave's back, he will not be apt to change his opinions in maturer years. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

3 " The influence of the iniquitous system necessarily fosters an unfeeling and cruel spirit, even in the bosoms of those who, among their equals, are regarded as humane and generous. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

4 " The law says you have the right to hold a nigger, but begging the law's pardon, it lies. . . Is everything right because the law allows it? Suppose they'd pass a law taking away your liberty and making you a slave? "

― Solomon Northup

5 " There's a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be a reckoning yet. . . there's a day coming that will burn as an oven. It may be sooner or it may be later, but it's a coming as sure as the Lord is just. "

― Solomon Northup

6 " There's a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be reckoning yet ... it may be sooner or it may be later, but it's a coming as sure as the Lord is just "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

7 " ...So we passed, handcuffed and in silence, through the streets of Washington, through the Captial of a nation, whose theory of government, we are told, rests on the foundation of man's inalienable right to life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness! Hail! Columbia, happy land, indeed! "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

8 " No credit--no debt. Credit leads a man into temptation. Cash down is the only thing that will deliver him from evil. "

― Solomon Northup

9 " Strange as it may seem, within plain sight of this same house, looking down from its commanding height upon it, was the Capitol. The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality, and the rattling of the poor slave's chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the Capitol! "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

10 " I ask no paradise on high, With cares on earth oppressed,
The only heaven for which I sigh, Is rest, eternal rest. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

11 " What difference is there in the color of the soul? "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

12 " Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

13 " There may be humane masters, as there certainly are inhuman ones—there may be slaves well-clothed, well-fed, and happy, as there surely are those half-clad, half-starved and miserable; nevertheless, the institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one. Men may write fictions portraying lowly life as it is, or as it is not—may expatiate with owlish gravity upon the bliss of ignorance—discourse flippantly from arm chairs of the pleasures of slave life; but let them toil with him in the field—sleep with him in the cabin—feed with him on husks; let them behold him scourged, hunted, trampled on, and they will come back with another story in their mouths. Let them know the heart of the poor slave—learn his secret thoughts—thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night—converse with him in trustful confidence, of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and they will find that ninety-nine out of every hundred are intelligent enough to understand their situation, and to cherish in their bosoms the love of freedom, as passionately as themselves. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

14 " I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery; "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

15 " Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear—dogs, alligators or men! "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

16 " And what difference is there in the color of the soul? "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

17 " Credit leads a man into temptation. Cash down is the only thing that will deliver him from evil. "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

18 " My sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell! "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

19 " Eliza, stop crying, You let sorrow take over you; you will drown in it "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave

20 " Alas! I had not then learned the measure of "man's inhumanity to man," nor to what limitless extent of wickedness he will go for the love of gain "

― Solomon Northup , Twelve Years a Slave