Solomon Northup - Twelve Years a Slave (1853)

12 Sourced Quotes

View all Solomon Northup Quotes
They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. 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, if his prayer is heard. A terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.

Solomon Northup
Unsoundness in a slave, as well as in a horse, detracts materially from his value. If no warranty is given, a close examination is a matter of particular importance to the Negro jockey.

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

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

Solomon Northup
My sufferings I can compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell!

Solomon Northup
There are few sights more pleasant to the eye, than a wide cotton field when it is in the bloom. It presents an appearance of purity, like an immaculate expanse of light, new-fallen snow.

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

Solomon Northup
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
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
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
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
It has been suggested that an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public,

Solomon Northup