We first debase the nature of man by making him a slave, and then very coolly tell him that he must always remain a slave because he does not know how to use freedom. We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate. Truly, human selfishness never invented a rule, which worked so charmingly both ways!

Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) American abolitionist, activist, journalist, suffragist

An Appeal on Behalf of That Class of Americans Called Africans, ch. 6 (1833)
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