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Notwithstanding my grandmother's long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block. These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.

— Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)

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More quotes by Harriet Jacobs

O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another. You never exhausted your ingenuity in avoiding the snares, and eluding the power of a hated tyrant; you never shuddered at the sound of his footsteps, and trembled within hearing of his voice.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861)

We are passing through times that will secure for us a higher and nobler celebration. American gold will never secure freedom equal rights and justice to our race. No! before these can come American slavery must be crushed, and its foul stain wiped from the Nation[‘]s escutcheon.

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