Miss Ophelia Quotes

“You ought to educate your slaves, and treat them like reasonable creatures,—like immortal creatures, that you’ve got to stand before the bar of God with.”

“Well, now, cousin, you’ve given us a good talk and done your duty; on the whole, I think the better of you for it. I make no manner of doubt that you threw a very diamond of truth at me, though you see it hit me so directly in the face that it wasn’t exactly appreciated, at first.”

“And he who goes the furthest, and does the worst, only uses within limits the power that the law gives him.”

“The slave-owner can whip his refractory slave to death,—the capitalist can starve him to death.”

“As to family security, it is hard to say which is the worst,—to have one’s children sold, or see them starve to death at home.”

“But it’s no kind of apology for slavery, to prove that it isn’t worse than some other bad thing.”