If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves.

Written in response to the publication of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, attacking the hypocrisy of American Patriots owning slaves while demanding independence; as quoted in Fragment of an original letter on the slavery of the negroes : written in the year 1776 (1836), Garrison and Knapp, p. 10