slavery

It is this outer reach of existential abnegation _ the moment where subjective identity deserts itself and becomes enslaved without consciousness of its subjugated condition _ that Mirbeau consistently sought to decry with horror.

The stuff of nightmare is their plain bread. They butter it with pain. They set their clocks by deathwatch beetles, and thrive the centuries. They were the men with the leather-ribbon whips who sweated up the Pyramids seasoning it with other people's salt and other people's cracked hearts. They coursed Europe on the White Horses of the Plague. They whispered to Caesar that he was mortal, then sold daggers at half-price in the grand March sale. Some must have been lazing clowns, foot props for emperors, princes, and epileptic popes. Then out on the road, Gypsies in time, their populations grew as the world grew, spread, and there was more delicious variety of pain to thrive on. The train put wheels under them and here they run down the log road out of the Gothic and baroque; look at their wagons and coaches, the carving like medieval shrines, all of it stuff once drawn by horses, mules, or, maybe, men.

The good man is free, even if he is a slave. The evil man is a slave, even if he is a king.

I refused to teach Sunday school. When Archdeacon Henry Phillips, my last rector, died, I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my 30th year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war.

Negro Slavery is an evil of Colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of Slavery into the Missouri Territories.

When you fear nothing, you have nothing to fear

I am a citizen of this country,_ I declare, __nd Mr. Mayor, tonight I will be a citizen of this city when I put my shoes under my bed. The courageous men, women and children who are with me (blocked from crossing the bridge into NYC) are also citizens of this country and will be sleeping near their shoes too. I want them with me tonight, here, in the city of New York. We are all American citizens._ _ Mother Jones

Go home now,_ says I. __eep away from the saloons. Save your money. You are going to need it.___hat are we going to need it for?_ asks a voice from the crowd.__or guns and ammunition,_ says I.

Honey, it isn__ democracy that runs this country. Capitalism rules. It does no good to reason with the capitalists or their politicians. This is a class war. We have to stir up the American people, the lower class. Some of the better-off lower class do show some sympathy for us when they__e smacked with the facts. And when they voice themselves collectively, good things happen._ _ Mother Jones

What the hell__ the matter with you men? Are you cowards as well as stupid? You boys make me sick. I__ done with you. You hear me? I want you to go back to your places now and stay with your children until I say you__e needed.__ell your wives and your older children to bring with them dish pans and cooking pots. Tell them to bring their stirring spoons and ladles. Tell them to carry a mop over their shoulders. We__e goin_ to march on that mine and we__e going to stand guard to see that no scabs are allowed in. Do you hear me?_ _ Mother Jones

Well, honey, it__ capitalism that brings out the meanness and greed,_ says I. __ur founding fathers did a decent job of framing our democracy. They wrote the Constitution and added a Bill of Rights that intended for people of all classes to enjoy the freedoms the Constitution offers. But capitalism came along without a constitution or a bill of rights and the industrialists grabbed unrestricted power. The capitalists wrote their own __eclaration of Capitalism_._ _ Mother Jones

Turning back to the crowd I say, __ am duty bound to make this plea, but I want to say, with all due respect to the governor here, that I doubt seriously that he will do _ cannot do _ anything. And for the reason that he is owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the capitalists who placed him here in this building._ _ Mother Jones

Democracy is supposed to be __f the people, by the people and for the people_. Capitalism is __f the capitalist, for the capitalist_. Period.

What do you see out there?_ I ask. __ittsburgh,_ he replies. Now I laugh. __o, young man. What you see is hell with the lid taken off._ _ Mother Jones

I go back to the union man and say, __ir, this is a house of God, not a proper place for a union meeting. I have some things to say today that God would not want to hear in His own house. Boys, I want you to get up, every one of you, and go across the road. I want you to sit down on the hillside over there and wait for me to speak to you.

To the RKO motion picture camera at her 100th birthday party: __ pray for the day when working men and women are able to earn a fair share of the wealth they produce in a capitalist system, a day when all Americans are able to enjoy the freedom, rights and opportunities guaranteed them by the Constitution of the United States of America._ _ Mother Jones

That__ got to stop,_ says I. __he idea of any blood-thirsty pirate (Mexican President Diaz) sitting on a throne and reaching across the border to tromp on our Constitution makes my blood boil._ _ Mother Jones

Notwithstanding the memories of slavery, and in the face poverty, ignorance, terrorism, and subjugation still deeply woven into their lives, the embittered past of blacks was taken onto a much higher plane of intellectual and artistic consideration during the Renaissance.