Words matter. These are the best John Sergeant Wise Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
However the Southern man may have been master of the negro, there were compensatory processes whereby certain negroes were masters of their masters’ children.
Father had notions about manhood suffrage, public schools, the education and the elevation of the masses, and the gradual emancipation of the slaves, that did not suit the uncompromising views of people in places like Richmond.
Wealthy men, too, like several of those in our neighborhood, had so many slaves that they were compelled to buy other plantations on which to employ them.
In such a condition of affairs, the practical difference between the abolitionist and the sympathizer, to the man who lost his slave and could not recover it, was very nebulous.
In the year 1857, passing through Washington on our return from the annual visit to Philadelphia, I had the distinguished honor of visiting a President for the first time.
Virginians were no more angels or philanthropists than people to the north or to the south of them. They were moved by their affections, their interest, and their resentments, just as humanity is moved today.
John Brown was tried for treason, murder, and inciting slaves to insurrection.
As early as the autumn of 1862, I was made very happy by being sent to school.
It is true, there was no public-school system, and the reason for it was very plain. The wealth of the upper classes enabled them to have private tutors.
The attack of John Brown upon Harper’s Ferry came upon Virginia like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky.
Of private differences personal to himself, my brother had none.
The first American ancestor of our name was a younger son of these old Devonshire people, and came to the Virginia colony in the reign of Charles the First.
That settled Abraham Lincoln with me. I was thoroughly satisfied that no such man ought to be President; but I could not yet conceive it possible that such a monster would be the choice of a majority of the people for President.
When I first concluded to print the book, I made an honest effort to construct it in the third person.
