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Abolitionist Quote by Eric Foner

“In a democratic society, as Max Weber said, what is possible is only possible because some people have demanded the impossible. The abolitionists helped to create a public discourse in which men like Lincoln become possible. That doesn't mean Lincoln is an abolitionist. It means there is a public…” quote by Eric Foner — Download Open image

“In a democratic society, as Max Weber said, what is possible is only possible because some people have demanded the impossible. The abolitionists helped to create a public discourse in which men like Lincoln become possible. That doesn't mean Lincoln is an abolitionist. It means there is a public opinion out there which is being influenced by antislavery sentiment.”

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Abolitionist Democratic Democratic society Discourse Impossible Max Max Weber Mean Men Opinion People Public discourse Public opinion Said Sentiments Weber

More by Eric Foner

“Successful teaching rests both on a genuine and selfless concern for students and on the ability to convey to them a love of history.”

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A man working for wages his whole life is not really free. That is why Jefferson said, you have to own land. Southerners said,…

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There are those who view the abolitionists as just maniacs, apolitical fanatics who helped to cause the war, and Lincoln is the model of…

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“New laws also redefined in the interest of the planter the terms of credit and the right to property—the essence of economic power in the rural South. Lien laws now gave a landlord’s claim to his share of the crop precedence over a laborer’s for wages or a merchant’s for supplies, thus shifting much of the risk of farming from…

Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged - or required, in some people's view - required to leave the country. It's part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never have free black and white…

I don't [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every…

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“Ironically, as Illinois Sen. Richard Yates pointed out, opponents of expansionism employed arguments extremely reminiscent of proslavery ideology, while its supporters upheld the principle that nonwhites could be successfully incorporated into the body politic. (No people, quipped Nevada Sen. James W. Nye, were “too degraded” for citizenship: “We have New Jersey, and all things considered, it has proven a success.”)”

Whatever Lincoln's racial views, which are not totally modern and egalitarian in many ways, he believes blacks should have this natural right to improve…

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“It is a well known fact that Abraham Lincoln spent much of his spare time visiting wounded soldiers in Union Army hospitals. I've spent…

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“Republicans, white and black, heaped scorn upon “respectables” who did not participate directly in the violence but “could not stop their sons from murdering their inoffensive neighbors in broad daylight.” Yet their complicity went beyond silence in the face of unspeakable crimes. Through their constant vilification of blacks, carpetbaggers, scalawags, and Reconstruction, the “old political leaders” fostered a climate that…

Look, Mrs. McGillicuddy, it's not my fault your son jumped out a dorm room window on Christmas eve. I've written over fifty books as…

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Who owns history? Everyone and no one--which is why the study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.

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More Abolitionist quotes

Nowhere is wisdom more necessary than in the guidance of charitable impulses. Meaning well is only half our duty; Thinking right is the other,…

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“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a…

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“That was when I realized we weren’t born to be slaves. It was ignorant for any man to think he could be the master…

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I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.

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One of the songs that stayed in my head that I really considered a lot was an old folk song called 'John Brown' -…

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Many abolitionists have yet to learn the ABC of woman's rights.

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You point out that war is only a symptom of the whole horrid business of human behavior, and cannot be isolated. And that, even…

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It’s time for a 21st-century abolitionist movement in the U.S and around the world.

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If, while I hear the wild shriek of the slave mother robbed of her little ones, I do not open my mouth, am I…

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I was in favour of the death penalty, and disposed to regard abolitionists as people whose hearts were bigger than their heads. Four years of close study of the subject gradually dispelled that feeling. In the end I became convinced that the abolitionists were right in their conclusions...and that far from the sentimental approach leading into their camp and the…

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In such a condition of affairs, the practical difference between the abolitionist and the sympathizer, to the man who lost his slave and could…

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