Forever Free
[As of] the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free …
— Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 65), The Emancipation Proclamation, 22 September 1862.
Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. …
The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. …
In giving freedom to the slave … we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.
— Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 65), State of the Union Address, 1 December 1862.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
— Thirteenth Amendment, Section 1, United States Constitution, 18 December 1865.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
— Julia Howe (1819 – 1910), Battle Hymn of the Republic, November 1861.
[Men] with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges …
A million people hungry, needing the fruit and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. …
Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire.
Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep hungry people from fishing them out.
Slaughter the pigs and bury them …
[A crime] that goes beyond denunciation.
[A sorrow] that weeping cannot symbolize. …
[Children] dying of pellagra … because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. …
[And,] in the eyes of the hungry, there is a growing wrath.
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
— John Steinbeck (1902 – 68), The Grapes of Wrath, 1939.
And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
— Luke 12:47, King James Bible, 1611.
(Sarah Colt, A Nation Reborn, PBS God in America, Episode 3, 2010)
(Phillip Montgomery, Building the Economy, The American Presidency with Bill Clinton, Episode 3, 2022)
(Ken Burns, The Universe of Battle, The Civil War, Episode 5, 1990)
