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Top Solomon Northup Quotes

Browse top 33 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Solomon Northup.

Favorite 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
2. "Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it." ~ Solomon Northup
3. "What difference is there in the color of the soul?" ~ Solomon Northup
4. "Really, it was difficult to determine which I had most reason to fear—dogs, alligators or men!" ~ Solomon Northup
5. "I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or recognizes the principle of slavery;" ~ Solomon Northup
6. "Credit leads a man into temptation. Cash down is the only thing that will deliver him from evil." ~ Solomon Northup
7. "Eliza, stop crying, You let sorrow take over you; you will drown in it" ~ Solomon Northup
8. "My sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell!" ~ Solomon Northup
9. "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
10. "They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees, with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come—it will come, if his prayer is heard—a terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy." ~ Solomon Northup
11. "Ten years I toiled for that man without reward. Ten years of my incessant labor has contributed to increase the bulk of his possessions. Ten years I was compelled to address him with downcast eyes and uncovered head—in the attitude and language of a slave. I am indebted to him for nothing, save undeserved abuse and stripes." ~ Solomon Northup
12. "On the way, a great many demanded it, read it, and passed on. Those having the air and appearance of gentlemen, whose dress indicated the possession of wealth, frequently took no notice of me whatever; but a shabby fellow, an unmistakable loafer, never failed to hail me, and to scrutinize and examine me in the most thorough manner. Catching runaways is sometimes a money-making business." ~ Solomon Northup
13. "I ask no paradise on high, With cares on earth oppressed,The only heaven for which I sigh, Is rest, eternal rest." ~ Solomon Northup
14. "Oh! How heavily the weight of slavery pressed upon me then. I must toil day after day, endure abuse and taunts and scoffs, sleep on the hard ground, live on the coarsest fare, and not only this, but live the slave of a blood-seeking wretch, of whom I must stand henceforth in continued fear and dread. Why had I not died in my young years-before God had given me children to love and live for? What unhappiness and suffering and sorrow it would have prevented. I sighed for liberty; but the bondsman's chain was round me, and could not be shaken off. I could only gaze wistfully towards the North, and think of the thousands of miles that stretched between me and the soil of freedom, over which a black freeman may not pass." ~ Solomon Northup
15. "Of course you did ; the law says you have the right to hold a nigger, but begging the law's pardon, it lies. Yes, Epps, when the law says that it's a liar, and the truth is not in it. Is every thing right because the law allows it ? Suppose they'd pass a law taking away your liberty and making you a slave?" ~ Solomon Northup
16. "The existence of Slavery in its most cruel form among them, has a tendency to brutalize the humane and finer feelings of their nature. Daily witnesses of human suffering—listening to the agonizing screeches of the slave—beholding him writhing beneath the merciless lash—bitten and torn by dogs—dying without attention, and buried without shroud or coffin—it cannot otherwise be expected," ~ Solomon Northup
17. "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" ~ Solomon Northup
18. "adroitly that there was" ~ Solomon Northup
19. "mind" ~ Solomon Northup
20. "To ask the master for a knife, or skillet, or any small convenience of the kind, would be answered with a kick, or laughed at as a joke. Whatever necessary article of this nature is found in a cabin has been purchased with Sunday money." ~ Solomon Northup
21. "Soon after he purchased me, Epps asked me if I could write and read, and on being informed that I had received some instruction in those branches of education, he assured me, with emphasis, if he ever caught me with a book, or with pen and ink, he would give me a hundred lashes." ~ Solomon Northup
22. "whether" ~ Solomon Northup
23. "considerable amount in consideration of his services in" ~ Solomon Northup
24. "case with Cocodrie Bayou, which Solomon must have heard with a starting "p." Here is a list" ~ Solomon Northup
25. "Suffice it to say, during the whole long day I came not to the conclusion, even once, that the southern slave, fed, clothed, whipped and protected by his master, is happier than the free colored citizen of the North. To that conclusion I have never since arrived." ~ Solomon Northup
26. "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
27. "...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
28. "The terrible lesson Burch taught me, impressed indelibly upon my mind the danger and uselessness of asserting I was a freeman. There was no possibility of any slave being able to assist me, while, on the other hand, there was a possibility of his exposing me." ~ Solomon Northup
29. "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;" ~ Solomon Northup
30. "you last night" ~ Solomon Northup
31. "I can speak of slavery only so far as it came under my own observation - only so far as I have known and experienced it in my own person." ~ Solomon Northup
32. "There are few sights more pleasant to the eye than a wide cotton field when it is in bloom. It presents an appearance of purity, like an immaculate expanse of light, new-fallen snow." ~ Solomon Northup
33. "There have been hours in my unhappy life, many of them, when the contemplation of death as the end of earthly sorrow - of the grave as a resting place for the tired and worn out body - has been pleasant to dwell upon." ~ Solomon Northup

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Solomon Northup Quotes
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Today's Quote

What an unsubstantial, happy, foolish time! Of all the times of mine that Time has in his grip, there is none that in one retrospection I can smile at half so much, and think of half so tenderly."
Author: Charles Dickens

What Did Solomon Northup Talk About?

Ear
Slave
Wit
Hen
Here
Thin
Con
Old
Able
Hold
Ring
Hear
Slavery
Read
Master
Lie
Less
Use
Hum
Thou
End
Suffering
Year
Ten
Son
Sorrow
Suffer
Sure
Sin
Round
Ears
Era
Free
Happy
Hey
King
Liberty
Low
May
Off
Ours
Rest
Ask

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