How we cite our quotes: Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #1
I had not lived fourteen years in slavery for nothing. I had felt, seen, and heard enough, to read the characters, and question the motives, of those around me. The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered. (4.10)
Today, most American fourteen-year-olds are just trying to figure out how to get a later curfew or a bigger allowance. Not Linda. Linda isn't taking on her parents; she's taking on the entire system of slavery.
Quote #2
We all concluded by saying, "He that is willing to be a slave, let him be a slave." (4.46)
Here's an early clue to what makes Linda able to fight her way out of slavery. Aunt Martha has instilled within her grandchildren a kind of stubbornness and a refusal to submit that serves Linda well.
Quote #3
No matter whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. In either case, there is no shadow of law to protect her from insult, from violence, or even from death; all these are inflicted by fiends who bear the shape of men (5.1)
Raping a white woman is punishable by death at this time. Raping a black woman? As long as you don't brag about it, go right ahead.
Quote #4
The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences. (6.11)
Slavery creates an environment of fear, and none of the socially weaker people—not women, children, or slaves—can stand up against it.
Quote #5
Reader, I draw no imaginary pictures of southern homes. I am telling you the plain truth. Yet when victims make their escape from this wild beast of Slavery, northerners consent to act the part of bloodhounds, and hunt the poor fugitive back into his den, "full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness." (6.13)
Here's a good moment of Linda's rhetoric. She steps back from the narrative and addresses the reader, using her intimate knowledge of slavery to give herself authority—and at the same time criticizes Northerners for being complicit in slavery.
Quote #6
I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks. It makes the white fathers cruel and sensual; the sons violent and licentious; it contaminates the daughters, and makes the wives wretched. (9.20)
Slavery ruins everyone involved—not just slaves. It's like mutually assured destruction of morality.
Quote #7
If you want to be fully convinced of the abominations of slavery, go on a southern plantation, and call yourself a negro trader. Then there will be no concealment; and you will see and hear things that will seem to you impossible among human beings with immortal souls. (9.22)
If this book isn't enough to convince you, Linda wants you to head on down and see the horrors for themselves. (Although maybe the real question is why simple logic isn't enough to convince everyone that, you know, owning other human beings is wrong.)
Quote #8
Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! You never knew what it is to be a slave; to be entirely unprotected by law or custom; to have the laws reduce you to the condition of a chattel, entirely subject to the will of another. (10.6)
Here's another appeal to the reader. Linda is trying to get her readers on her side, to see that she only behaved badly—according to their standards—to escape a worse fate.
Quote #9
Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own. (14.6)
Much of the novel is spent showing how slavery is worse for women due to the constant threat of rape and sexual harassment.
Quote #10
I like a straightforward course, and am always reluctant to resort to subterfuges. So far as my ways have been crooked, I charge them all upon slavery. It was that system of violence and wrong which now left me no alternative but to enact a falsehood. (32.5).
One of the worst effects of slavery is that it forces slaves to become secretive and deceptive in order to protect themselves. They basically have no chance to be good people.