Blood Meridian Race Quotes

How we cite our quotes:

Quote #1

"I was a slaver, don't care to tell it. Made good money. I never did get caught. Just got sick of it" (2.47).

Early in the book, the kid meets a man who used to capture and sell slaves. But the man says he got sick of it. You'd like to think he quit because he felt immoral. But the truth is that he didn't like spending so much of his life around non-white people.

Quote #2

"What we are dealing with, he said, is a race of degenerates. A mongrel race, little better than n—s. And maybe no better" (3.95).

Captain White really has a hate-on for the Mexicans. This probably has something to do with the fact that at this point in history (the 1840s), the Americans have just finished fighting a war with the Mexicans. And war has a habit of bringing out some racist attitudes against the enemy.

Quote #3

"In this company there rode two men named Jackson, one black, one white, both forenamed John" (7.1).

There are two John Jacksons in Glanton's militia—one black and one white. And guess what? They don't get along one bit. The world ain't big enough for the two of them, and one eventually kills the other. You'll have to read the book (or our chapter-by-chapter summary) to find out which one lives.