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If the arm of the North had not caused the Bastille of slavery to totter to its foundation, you would not hear those cries. A few years ago, and the South felt secure, and with a contemptuous sneer asked, "Who are the abolitionists? The abolitionists are nothing?"

— Angelina Grimké Speech at Pennsylvania Hall (1838)

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More quotes by Angelina Grimké

The time to assert a right is the time when that right is denied.

Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights.

I find that every stream from which I used to drink the refreshing waters of salvation is dry & that I have been led to the fountain itself.

I know you do not make the laws but I also know that you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do.

If a law commands me to sin I will break it; if it calls me to suffer, I will let it take its course unresistingly. The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Angelina Grimké (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.