Solomon Northup Quotes & Sayings

Adroitly that there was — Solomon Northup

Eliza, stop crying, You let sorrow take over you; you will drown in it — Solomon Northup

Not by human dwellings
not in crowded cities alone, are the sights and sounds of life. The wildest places of the earth are full of them. — Solomon Northup

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

Death was far less terrible than the living prospect that was before us — Solomon Northup

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

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

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

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

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

Let not those who have never been placed in like circumstances judge me harshly — Solomon Northup

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

one knee, with a groan, I released my hold upon his throat, — Solomon Northup

considerable amount in consideration of his services in — Solomon Northup

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

woollyheads and silvergrays, and am unable to understand — Solomon Northup

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

The best dancer appeared to be considered the one who could whoop the loudest, jump the farthest, and utter the most excruciating noise. — Solomon Northup

Brought up with such ideas - in the notion that we stand without the pale of humanity - no wonder the oppressors of my people are a pitiless and unrelenting race. — Solomon Northup

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

with a scrap of bacon on her — Solomon Northup

My back is thick with scars for protesting my freedom. — 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 has been suggested that an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public, — Solomon Northup

Life is dear to every living thing; the worm that crawls upon the ground will struggle for it. — Solomon Northup

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

I don't want to survive, I want to live. — Solomon Northup

12 Years a Slave — Solomon Northup

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. — Solomon Northup

It is the literal, unvarnished truth, that the crack of the lash, and the shrieking of the slaves, can be heard from dark till bed time, on Epps' plantation, any day almost during the entire period of the cotton-picking season. — Solomon Northup

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

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

Indian Creek, in its whole length, flows through a magnificent forest. There dwells on its shore a tribe of Indians, a remnant of the Chickasaws or Chickopees, if I remember rightly. They live in simple huts, ten or twelve feet square, constructed of pine poles and covered with bark. They subsist principally on the flesh of the deer, the coon, and opossum, all of which are plenty in these woods. Sometimes they exchange venison for a little corn and whisky with the planters on the bayous. Their usual dress is buckskin breeches and calico hunting shirts of fantastic colors, buttoned from belt to chin. They wear brass rings on their wrists, and in their ears and noses. The dress of the squaws is very similar. — Solomon Northup

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

case with Cocodrie Bayou, which Solomon must have heard with a starting "p." Here is a list — Solomon Northup

Is everything right because the law allows it? — Solomon Northup

my situation, however, the more I became — Solomon Northup

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

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

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

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

Children listen to superstitious tales, the story goes, that that spot, in the heart of the "Big Cane," is a haunted place. For more than a quarter of a century, human voices had rarely, if ever, disturbed the silence of the clearing. Rank and noxious weeds had overspread the once cultivated field - serpents sunned themselves on the doorway of the crumbling cabin. It was indeed a dreary picture — Solomon Northup

under other circumstances and other influences, — Solomon Northup

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

What difference is there in the color of the soul? — Solomon Northup

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still he plied the lash without stint upon my poor body, until it seemed that the lacerated flesh was stripped from my bones at every stroke. A man with a particle of mercy in his soul would not have beaten even a dog so cruelly. — Solomon Northup

The first Sunday after my coming to the plantation, he called them together, and began to read the twelfth chapter of Luke. When he came to the 47th verse, he looked deliberately around him, and continued - "And that servant which knew his lord's will," - here he paused, looking around more deliberately than before, and again proceeded - "which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself" - here was another pause - "prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." "D'ye hear that?" demanded Peter, emphatically. "Stripes," he repeated, slowly and distinctly, taking off his spectacles, preparatory to making a few remarks. "That nigger that don't take care - that don't obey his lord - that's his master - d'ye see? - that 'ere nigger shall be beaten with many stripes. Now, 'many' signifies a great many - forty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty lashes. That's Scripter! — Solomon Northup

Drawn up and signed by the proper parties, wherein Epps acknowledged he — Solomon Northup