HKB
60 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: trade, markets, and merchants · agriculture and the land · poverty and wealth · labor, wages, and the division of work · value, price, and exchange · public finance and debt · conquest, plunder, and captives · custom and the manners of a people · taxation, tribute, and revenue · crafts, industry, and manufacture · supply, logistics, and encampment · geography and the description of places
Usually: argument (353) · detachment (282) · narrative (241) · curiosity (158) · skepticism (131) · indignation (107) · injustice endured (85) · exhortation (73) · sudden reversal of fortune (66) · crisis of belief (54)
“Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why?” Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party · observation
“Without any appeal to books, to laws, or to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, to regard slavery as a crime.” Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom · insight
“Thus by rotation like repose is gained, Nor earth meanwhile uneared and thankless left.” Virgil, The Georgics · insight
“I conclude, therefore, without having recourse to inaccurate computations, and without hazarding a comparison which might prove incorrect, that the democratic government of the Americans is not a cheap government, as is sometimes asserted; and I have no hesitation in predicting that, if the people of the United States is ever involved in serious difficulties, its taxation will speedily be increased.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America — Volume 1 · insight
“Thus the same law prevents the slaves of the South from coming to the Northern States, and drives those of the North to the South.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America — Volume 1 · insight
“To admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct--to feel no surprise at the comparative rarity of one species with another, and yet to call in some extraordinary agent and to marvel greatly when a species ceases to exist, appears to me much the same as to admit that sickness in the individual is the prelude to death--to feel no surprise at sickness--but when the sick man dies to wonder, and to believe that he died through violence.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“Every one, excepting myself, had cause to be dissatisfied; but to me the ascent afforded a most interesting section of the great tertiary formation of Patagonia.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · observation
“An undulating land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one monotonous brown colour.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · vivid
“Horrid as such a death by the hands of their friends and relatives must be, the fears of the old women, when hunger begins to press, are more painful to think of.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · insight
“and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle:” or rather, I should say, like a strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship.” Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle · vivid
“A man had better have ten thousand pounds at the end of ten years passed in England, than twenty thousand pounds at the end of ten years passed in India, because you must compute what you GIVE for money; and a man who has lived ten years in India, has given up ten years of social comfort and all those advantages which arise from living in England.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · insight
“for they have no other supply of water to save them except from Zeus alone.” Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1 · insight
Douglass finds work on the wharves, experiences Northern pay and autonomy, recounts a minor misunderstanding with the cost of cord, and contrasts Massachusetts labor with being owned or seized.
me that no slave-holder could take a slave out of New Bedford; that there were men there who would lay down their lives to save me from such a fate. The fifth day after my arrival, I put on the clothes of a common laborer, and went upon the wharves in search of work. On my way down Union street I saw a large pile of coal in front of the house of Rev. Ephraim Peabody, the Unitarian minister. I went to the kitchen doo…
It continues in Meccan discourse: believers are protected from Satan, the Qur’an is brought down truthfully, denial brings severe punishment, and dietary rules and repentance are framed as God’s right guidance.
which is right, whether male or female, if a believer, him will we surely quicken to a happy life, and recompense them with a reward meet for their best deeds. When thou readest the Koran, have recourse to God for help against Satan the stoned,14 For no power hath he over those who believe, and put their trust in their Lord, But only hath he power over those who turn away from God, and join other deities with Him.…
The passage stresses mercy after repentance, Moses’ chosen elders and a quake, Israel’s prophetic lawgiving, the promise of guidance through an unlettered prophet, and God’s provision through twelve fountains, manna, and quails.
He said, "O Lord, forgive me and my brother, and bring us into thy mercy; for of those who shew mercy thou art the most merciful." Verily as to those who took the calf as a god, wrath from their Lord shall overtake them, and shame in this present life: for thus recompense we the devisers of a lie. But to those who have done evil, then afterwards repent and believe, thy Lord will thereafter be Lenient, Merciful. An…
Pepys rides ashore on the 29th, wagers about the height of a sea-side cliff near Deale, hears Deale’s bonfire for the King’s birthday, and later records financial accounting and the restoration celebrations.
they had honours of Earldome, or the like, excepting only the Duke of Buckingham, who was only Sir George Villiers when he was made Knight of the Garter. [A.D. 1616.] 29th. Abroad to shore with my Lord, (which he offered me of himself, saying that I had a great deal of work to do this month, which was very true.) On shore we took horses, my Lord and Mr.Edward, Mr. Hetly and I, and three or four servants, and had a …
At a coffee-house Pepys hears East country merchants’ accounts of winter fish markets near “Quinsborough,” including fish frozen on sledges yet reanimating, and further tales of honey from fir-trees and hunting practices.
come to the Duke's house again; and of a rare play to be acted this week of Sir William Davenant's. The story of Henry the Eighth with all his wives. 11th. At the Coffee-house I went and sat by Mr. Harrington, and some East country merchants, and talking of the country above Quinsborough, [Perhaps Mr. Harrington invented the name of this place, and the account of the country.] and thereabouts, he told us himself t…
Pepys reports a dispute aboard navy victualling and Lent fishing as commanders argue over lost profits, and records news that the King of France has created twelve dukes to subdue his nobility.
three or four wolves thereabouts that did them great hurt; but it was no matter, for the Duke was to make it good to him, otherwise he would kill them. 12th. We had this morning a great dispute between Mr. Gauden, Victualler of the Navy, and Sir J. Lawson, and the rest of the Commanders going against Argier, about their fish and keeping of Lent; which Mr. Gauden so much insists upon to have it observed, as being th…
After watching “The Mayd’s Tragedy” Pepys records Parliament passing the “great Proviso,” the King’s hostile reaction, and worries it will inflame court-commons conflict, amid plague-era theatre reopening and coal shortages.
the great plague, they having acted now about fourteen days publickly. But I was in mighty pain, lest I should be seen by any body to be at a play. 8th. The great Proviso passed the House of Parliament yesterday: which makes the King and Court mad, the King having given order to my Lord Chamberlain to send to the playhouses and brothels, to bid all the Parliament-men that were there to go to the Parliament presentl…
Continuing on the 14th, Pepys says shipmasters keep stores to prevent payment, seamen’s morale collapses over unpaid wages, Wapping wives publicly protest, and citizens demand a Parliament amid sinking ships and delays from Chatham.
And masters of ships that are lately taken up, do keep from their ships all their stores, or as much as they can, so that we can dispatch them, having not time to appraise them, nor secure their payment. Only some little money we have, which we are fain to pay the men we have with every night, or they will not work. And indeed the hearts as well as affections of the seamen are turned away; and in the open streets in …
Pepys tours Woolwich defenses, discusses sunk ships and banking credit collapse, coal shortages threatening mutiny, and grim assessments of the kingdom’s chances and court finances.
done; and pray God it may hold, though some of us must surely go to the pot, for all must be flung up to them, or nothing will be done. 26th. The Parliament is ordered to meet the 25th of July being, as they say, St. James's day; which every creature is glad of. Colonel Reymes [Bullen Reymes, M.P. for Melcombe Regis.] tells me of a letter come last night or the day before from my Lord St. Albans out of France, wher…
Pepys visits Audley End and praises its gallery and cellars but criticizes decayed interiors, then travels through Stortford to Cambridge and onwards to Huntingdon and Brampton, enjoying family visits and noting financial strains among relatives.
new play, and is said now-a-days to have generally most company, as being better players. By and by into the pit, and there saw the play, which is pretty good. 7th. I and my wife, and Willet, [Mrs. Pepys's maid.] set out in a coach I have hired with four horses; and W. Hewer and Murford rode by us on horse-back; and before night come to Bishop- Stafford. [Stortford.] Took coach to Audly-End, and did go all over …
Pepys travels from Salisbury toward Hungerford, then night-arrives at Old Sarum and sleeps at the George Inn, paying hospitality and giving money to the poor along the way.
where had been a fair of custard; and met many people and scholars going home; and there did get some pretty good musick, and sang and danced till supper: 5s. 10th. Wednesday. Up, and walked to the hospitall: very large and fine, and pictures of founders and the History of the hospitall; and is said to be worth 700l. per annum, and that Mr. Foly was here lately to see how their lands were settled. And here, in o…
Near Rhodes the Peloponnesians and Chians clash: Pedaritus raids Athenian works, is killed after Athenian counter-sallies, and the Chians face famine; meanwhile Alcibiades sabotages negotiations with Tissaphernes by inflating demands until the Athenians withdraw.
the democracy; and after taking all other measures required by the circumstances, so that no time might be lost, set off with his ten companions on his voyage to Tissaphernes. In the same winter Leon and Diomedon, who had by this time joined the fleet, made an attack upon Rhodes. The ships of the Peloponnesians they found hauled up on shore, and, after making a descent upon the coast and defeating the Rhodians who a…
For a month the South Wind holds them while they keep away from Helios’ cattle, but hunger drives the crew to hunt, Eurylochus proposes sacrificing Helios’ cattle, and they later learn Zeus will punish them when signs turn their meat to living imagery.
spake, and their lordly spirit hearkened thereto. Then for a whole month the South Wind blew without ceasing, and no other wind arose, save only the East and the South. “Now so long as my company still had corn and red wine, they refrained them from the kine, for they were fain of life. But when the corn was now all spent from out the ship, and they went wandering with barbed hooks in quest of game, as needs they mu…
Darwin explains that diversification lets descendants of a lineage exploit new prey, habitats, and diets, and he generalizes with grass and wheat experiments, plus small-area ecology where intense competition favors diverse forms.
habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature, and so be enabled to increase in numbers. We can clearly see this in the case of animals with simple habits. Take the case of a carnivorous quadruped, of which the number that can be supported in any country has long ago arrived at its full average. If its natural powers of increase be allowed to ac…
He argues that naturalised plants often become more diverse and less like the native flora, citing Alph. De Candolle and Dr. Asa Gray, and interprets this as evidence that diversification improves success against competitors.
differences of habit and constitution, determine that the inhabitants, which thus jostle each other most closely, shall, as a general rule, belong to what we call different genera and orders. The same principle is seen in the naturalisation of plants through man’s agency in foreign lands. It might have been expected that the plants which have succeeded in becoming naturalised in any land would generally have been cl…
Du Bois depicts July heat, countryside travel along the Flint, tenant farming after war, decayed plantation estates, and the effect of a system of mortgages and debt that leaves mainly Black tenants on the land.
far and wide over three hundred lonesome square miles of land, without train or trolley, in the midst of cotton and corn, and wide patches of sand and gloomy soil. It gets pretty hot in Southern Georgia in July,—a sort of dull, determined heat that seems quite independent of the sun; so it took us some days to muster courage enough to leave the porch and venture out on the long country roads, that we might see this …
Du Bois describes a Georgia countryside journey where Black tenants lose land and savings to cotton failure and sheriff seizures, exemplified by Luke Black’s debts and a mule rental system on the former Bolton estate.
start, but when the black man died last fall the master’s sons immediately laid claim to the estate. “And them white folks will get it, too,” said my yellow gossip. I turn from these well-tended acres with a comfortable feeling that the Negro is rising. Even then, however, the fields, as we proceed, begin to redden and the trees disappear. Rows of old cabins appear filled with renters and laborers,—cheerless, bare, …
Despite generally fertile land, two-thirds of it yields only one crop that keeps laborers in debt; Du Bois illustrates with a formerly enslaved man still stuck under rent of cotton, and concludes with the tragedy of freedmen abandoning the hoe.
tools to relieve its burdensome drudgery. But with all this, it is work in the pure open air, and this is something in a day when fresh air is scarce. The land on the whole is still fertile, despite long abuse. For nine or ten months in succession the crops will come if asked: garden vegetables in April, grain in May, melons in June and July, hay in August, sweet potatoes in September, and cotton from then to Christ…
Du Bois traces Black landholding growth in Dougherty County (from zero landholders in 1870 to thousands of acres by 1890–1900), while noting panics, cotton price swings, and assessment uncertainties weaken long-term capital stability.
all things to the will of the landlords.” On this low plane half the black population of Dougherty County—perhaps more than half the black millions of this land—are to-day struggling. A degree above these we may place those laborers who receive money wages for their work. Some receive a house with perhaps a garden-spot; then supplies of food and clothing are advanced, and certain fixed wages are given at the end of …
During a famine Isaac stays in Gerar after a divine warning not to go to Egypt, identifies Rebecca as his sister, is blessed materially, reopens wells, makes peace with Abimelech, and reaches Beersheba.
And there fell a dearth in the land, passing the first dearth that fell in the days of Abraham. Wherefore Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. Then the LORD appeared unto him and said: go not down into Egypt, but bide in the land which I say unto thee: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries. And I wil…
Joseph presents five brothers to Pharaoh, negotiates a Goshen settlement because of famine, then administers Pharaoh’s grain policy that forces Egyptians to sell land, while Israel multiplies in Goshen.
And Ioseph went and told Pharao and said: my father and my brethren their sheep and their beasts and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan and are in the land of Gosan. And Ioseph took a part of his brethren: even five of them, and presented them unto Pharao. And Pharao said unto his brethren: what is your occupation? And they said unto Pharao: feeders of sheep {shepherds} are thy servants, both we a…
After leaving Elim, Israel arrives at the wilderness of Sin and complains about hunger; God promises bread from heaven and meat, and cloud-glory appears as quails come and morning dew yields edible bread.
And they took their journey from Elim, and all the whole company of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which lieth between Elim and Sinai: the fifteenth day of the second month after that they were come out of the land of Egypt. And the hole multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said unto them: would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in…
Israel gathers manna in portions measured by a gomer, finds it spoils overnight when gathered too much, and on the Sabbath they gather double before it, resting on the seventh day as manna lasts.
a gomer full for a man according to the number of you, and gather every man for them which are in his tent. And the children of Israel did even so, and gathered some more some less, and did mete it with a gomer. And unto him that had gathered much remained nothing over, and unto him that had gathered little was there no lack: but every man had gathered sufficient for his eating. And Moses said unto them: See that no …
Israel eats manna through until the borders of Canaan, with the text explaining that a gomer is the tenth part of an Epha.
And so they ate Man, even until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan, and a gomer is the tenth part of an Epha.
Israel complains about lacking flesh and remembers Egypt’s foods, prompting God’s wrath and burning fire, then Moses intercedes as God grants the complainters a future supply of meat through shared leadership of elders.
And the people waxed unpatient, {complained} and it displeased the ears of the LORD. And when the LORD heard it he was wroth, and the fire of the LORD burnt among them and consumed the uttermost of the host. And the people cried unto Moses, and he made intercession unto the LORD and the fire quenched. And they called the name of the place Tabera because the fire of the LORD burnt among them. And the rascal people tha…
God promises meat for a month and challenges Moses’s doubts, then spreads Moses’s spirit to seventy elders, adds Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp, brings quails, and condemns the craving as the people bury the dead at Kibroth-hattaavah (Graves of lust).
therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat: Ye shall not eat one day only either two or five days, either ten or twenty days: but even a month long, and until it come out at the nostrils of you, that ye be ready to parbreak: because that ye have cast the LORD aside which is among you, and have wept before him saying: why came we out of Egypt. And Moses said: six hundred thousand footmen are there of the…
Moses tells Israel to remember the wilderness for forty years—manna, clothing, and God’s nurturing—to bless the LORD in prosperity and fearfully avoid forgetting Him in abundance.
All the commandments which I command thee this day ye shall keep for to do them, that ye may live and multiply and go and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. And think on all the way which the LORD thy God led thee this forty years in the wilderness, for to humble thee and to prove thee, to wete what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. He humbled thee and made t…
Moses urges Israel to love the LORD and remember Egypt’s plagues and later wilderness judgments, teaches covenant faithfulness for land fertility, and sets blessing on Mount Gerizim and curse on Mount Ebal.
Love the LORD thy God and keep his observances, his ordinances, his laws and his commandments alway. And call to mind this day that which your children have neither known nor seen: even the nurture of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his stretched out arm: his miracles and his acts which he did among the Egyptians, even unto Pharao the king of Egypt and unto all his land: and what he did unto the…
A warning of covenant curses tells Israel that fields and vineyards will fail, enemies will ruin olive trees, children will be taken captive, and a besieging enemy will eventually destroy the nation’s cities.
And thou shalt go to waste and be made an example and a jesting stock unto all nations whither the LORD shall carry thee. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in: for the locusts {grasshoppers} shall destroy it. Thou shalt plant a vineyard and dress it, but shalt neither drink of the wine neither gather of the grapes, for the worms shall eat it. Thou shalt have olive trees in all…
Jesus feeds a hungry crowd of four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish, rejects demands for a heavenly sign, warns about Pharisaic and Herodian leaven, heals a blind man in stages at Bethsaida, and tells him not to tell the town.
The .viij. Chapter. In those days when there was a very great company, and had nothing to eat, Iesus called his disciples to him and said unto them: My heart melteth on this people, because they have now been with me iij. days, and have nothing to eat: And if I should send them away fasting to their own houses, they should faint by the way. For divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him: from whenc…
Jesus feeds thousands with five barley loaves and fish, tells his disciples to gather leftovers so nothing is lost, then departs to a mountain, and later walks on the sea toward Capernaum.
took the bread, and gave thanks, and gave to his disciples, and his disciples, to them that were set down. And likewise of the fishes, as much as they would. When they had eaten enough, he said unto his disciples: gather up the broken meat that remaineth: that nothing be lost. They gathered it together, and filled twelve baskets with the broken meat, of the five barley loaves, which broken meat remained unto them th…
In Capernaum Jesus teaches that people seek him only because they ate, urging labor for everlasting life, and he identifies himself as “bread of life,” provoking Jewish murmuring about heaven and his origin.
from heaven: but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For he is the bread of God, which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him: Master ever more give us this bread. And Iesus said unto them: I am that bread of life. He that cometh to me, shall not hunger: and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you: that ye have seen me, and yet believe ye…
This passage restates the Apollinarian festival customs—garlands, women’s supplications, public feasting with doors thrown open—and then begins the Capua famine storyline under Hannibal and Roman operations in Samnium.
garlands; the matrons made supplications; the people in general feasted in the courts of their houses, throwing the doors open; and the day was distinguished by every description of ceremony. 13. While Hannibal was in the neighbourhood of Tarentum, and both the consuls in Samnium, though they seemed as if they were about to besiege Capua, the Campanians were experiencing famine, that calamity which is the usual atte…
Douglass describes his childhood on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation—hunger, cold, and meager food—then explains how he is sent to Baltimore and spends three joyful days washing and preparing for the move.
As to my own treatment while I lived on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, it was very similar to that of the other slave children. I was not old enough to work in the field, and there being little else than field work to do, I had a great deal of leisure time. The most I had to do was to drive up the cows at evening, keep the fowls out of the garden, keep the front yard clean, and run of errands for my old master’s daughte…
Douglass contrasts city slavery with plantation slavery, saying city slaves are better fed and less publicly cruelly treated, while he still describes extreme brutality by Mrs. Thomas Hamilton toward Henrietta and Mary.
In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress. I acknowledge the benefit of both. I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference, in the treatment of slaves, from that which I had witnessed in the country. A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothe…
Douglass dates his move to St. Michael’s in March 1832, describes new hunger under Master Thomas Auld, and explains how enslaved people are forced to beg and steal for food.
I have now reached a period of my life when I can give dates. I left Baltimore, and went to live with Master Thomas Auld, at St. Michael’s, in March, 1832. It was now more than seven years since I lived with him in the family of my old master, on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. We of course were now almost entire strangers to each other. He was to me a new master, and I to him a new slave. I was ignorant of his temper an…
Herzl lays out how the new Jewish migration should occupy land scientifically: geologists and engineers replace chance, representatives take possession by ship, natural resources are inventoried, administration centralized, and land distributed via auctions paid in work.
THE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND When nations wandered in historic times, they let chance carry them, draw them, fling them hither and thither, and like swarms of locusts they settled down indifferently anywhere. For in historic times the earth was not known to man. But this modern Jewish migration must proceed in accordance with scientific principles. Not more than forty years ago gold-digging was carried on in an extra…
Using New York’s constitution as an example, Hamilton argues that state election rules already allow confining elections to counties or districts without preventing manipulation, and he reasons distance and inconvenience would suppress voting regardless of whether it is federal or state.
men, that if the public liberty should ever be the victim of the ambition of the national rulers, the power under examination, at least, will be guiltless of the sacrifice. If those who are inclined to consult their jealousy only, would exercise it in a careful inspection of the several State constitutions, they would find little less room for disquietude and alarm, from the latitude which most of them allow in resp…
Madison argues that increasing the Union’s size and variety of interests makes faction less dangerous, so religious sects and economic panics are more likely to stay localized than spread nationwide.
it may be remarked that, where there is a consciousness of unjust or dishonorable purposes, communication is always checked by distrust in proportion to the number whose concurrence is necessary. Hence, it clearly appears, that the same advantage which a republic has over a democracy, in controlling the effects of faction, is enjoyed by a large over a small republic,--is enjoyed by the Union over the States composin…
Hamilton criticizes state contributions under the Articles as quota-based and unequal, arguing for federal revenue-raising via tariffs and duties that naturally self-regulate and reduce oppression.
men. A guaranty by the national authority would be as much levelled against the usurpations of rulers as against the ferments and outrages of faction and sedition in the community. The principle of regulating the contributions of the States to the common treasury by QUOTAS is another fundamental error in the Confederation. Its repugnancy to an adequate supply of the national exigencies has been already pointed out, …
After landing in the safe harbor, Achates revives fire, the Trojans dry food, feast from seven shared kills, and Aeneas urges endurance while they mourn missing friends, ending the day at rest.
this happy harbour meet, The thin remainders of the scatter’d fleet. The Trojans, worn with toils, and spent with woes, Leap on the welcome land, and seek their wish’d repose. First, good Achates, with repeated strokes Of clashing flints, their hidden fire provokes: Short flame succeeds; a bed of wither’d leaves The dying sparkles in their fall receives: Caught into life, in fiery fumes they …
Aeneas arms again, carries Anchises and leads Ascanius, while servants bring Trojan relics to a temple of Ceres; during the flight through the dark streets he loses Creusa permanently.
tender child! These omens are your own, And you can yet restore the ruin’d town. At least accomplish what your signs foreshow: I stand resign’d, and am prepar’d to go.’ “He said. The crackling flames appear on high. And driving sparkles dance along the sky. With Vulcan’s rage the rising winds conspire, And near our palace roll the flood of fire. ‘Haste, my dear father, (’tis no time to wait,)…
The passage concludes with God’s sovereignty over nature and morality, warnings against turning back after assent, instructions for obedience and alms, promises of security for the faithful, and threats that unbelievers will end in the Fire.
And the fifth time that the malison of God be upon him, if he be of them that lie. But it shall avert the chastisement from her if she testify a testimony four times repeated, by God, that he is of them that lie; And a fifth time to call down the wrath of God on her, if he have spoken the truth. And but for the goodness and mercy of God towards you, and that God is He who loveth to turn, Wise . . . . ! Of a truth…
Back in Smyrna, Equiano sees merchants’ caravan trade and plague disruption, survives a near-ship fire during the voyage to England, and notes that by late 1770 captain and shippeople separated.
we arrived in Standgate creek in July; and, at the latter end of the year, some new event occurred, so that my noble captain, the ship, and I all separated. In April 1771 I shipped myself as a steward with Capt. Wm. Robertson of the ship Grenada Planter, once more to try my fortune in the West Indies; and we sailed from London for Madeira, Barbadoes, and the Grenades. When we were at this last place, having some goo…
He describes plantation meal deprivation and segregation, with children eating scraps and fanning flies in the “big house,” and contrasts slave and white diets as war shortages lead to substitutes.
he had secured among the slaves, and in this way they often heard of important events before the white people at the “big house,” as the master’s house was called. I cannot remember a single instance during my childhood or early boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together, and God’s blessing was asked, and the family ate a meal in a civilized manner. On the plantation in Virginia, and even later, m…
Washington discusses local political pressures to vote “like we votes,” then describes his June 1881 travels by mule and cart through Alabama cabins, focusing on living conditions, diet, and debts.
because he is white is largely disappearing, and the race is learning to vote from principle, for what the voter considers to be for the best interests of both races. I reached Tuskegee, as I have said, early in June, 1881. The first month I spent in finding accommodations for the school, and in travelling through Alabama, examining into the actual life of the people, especially in the court districts, and in gettin…
He details Tuskegee’s boarding hardships during a very cold second winter, recounts sleepless nights and students’ endurance, and reports respectful treatment by students and white community members.
was of any value to the institution. The cost of tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each student, we had to secure then, as now, wherever we could. This small charge in cash gave us no capital with which to start a boarding department. The weather during the second winter of our work was very cold. We were not able to provide enough bed-clothes to keep the students warm. In fact, for some time we were not a…
He extends his “Cast down your bucket where you are” exhortation to agriculture, mechanics, commerce, and professions, argues dignity in common labor, warns against letting grievances eclipse opportunity, and promises interracial prosperity through education and development.
I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the S…
He links the plague’s arrival to London’s Restoration-era population boom, describing wealthy flight from the west, while most people stayed in the liberties and eastern suburbs.
such as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the like, the people generally stayed, except here and there a few wealthy families, who, as above, did not depend upon their business. It must not be forgot here that the city and suburbs were prodigiously full of people at the time of this visitation, I mean at the time that it began; for though I have lived to see a further increase, and might…
He offers a practical “direction” for future outbreaks and describes how, when plague emptied London of trade, multiple trades and service jobs collapsed, leaving poor people without wages.
year, and which burnt even the chamberlain’s office and many of their papers, so I could never come at the particular account, which I used great endeavours to have seen. It may, however, be a direction in case of the approach of a like visitation, which God keep the city from;—I say, it may be of use to observe that by the care of the Lord Mayor and aldermen at that time in distributing weekly gre…
With trade and navigation stopped, Defoe says displaced workers fled or died on the road from hunger and despair, while parish magistrates tried to prevent tumults and famine.
to these that the river was in a manner without boats, and all or most part of the watermen, lightermen, boat-builders, and lighter-builders in like manner idle and laid by. 5. All families retrenched their living as much as possible, as well those that fled as those that stayed; so that an innumerable multitude of footmen, serving-men, shopkeepers, journeymen, merchants’ bookkeepers, and such sort…
As charity spreads—straw, wheat, and peas—the refugees build a warmer house, learn rumours that plague is reaching Epping/Woodford, and note that a contrary claim about market-people is likely false.
them, ‘for,’ says he, ‘we are all whole and sound people here, and we would not have you bring the plague among us, nor pretend we brought it among you.’ After this the parish officers came up to them and parleyed with them at a distance, and desired to know who they were, and by what authority they pretended to fix their stand at that place. John answered very frankly, they were poor distressed pe…
Defoe questions whether house-shutting stops infection, claiming spread occurs via the not-visibly infected; he recounts a quarantined Whitechapel house where repeated inspections lead to deaths.
as the end chiefly aimed at, and all the private injuries that were done by the putting it in execution must be put to the account of the public benefit. It is doubtful to this day whether, in the whole, it contributed anything to the stop of the infection; and indeed I cannot say it did, for nothing could run with greater fury and rage than the infection did when it was in its chief violence, thou…
The passage dwells on Black soldiers’ presence in rural Lorraine and then portrays wartime Paris’s hunger and mourning, followed by Du Bois’s visionary return to New York’s skyline and the “new world” it represents.
soldiers of America rescuing beloved France--and the words came in praise and benediction there in the "Y," with its little stock of cigarettes and candies and its rusty wood stove. "*Alors*," said Madame, "*quatre sont morts*"--four dead--four tall, strong sons dead for France--sons like the sweet and blue-eyed daughter who was hiding her brave smile in the dusk. It was a tiny stone house whose front window lipped …
Douglass describes his birthplace in Talbot County’s Eastern Shore district called Tuckahoe near Easton, explains the origin of the name, notes the Choptank River’s role, and estimates his birth around 1817 under slavery’s lack of genealogical records.
PLACE OF BIRTH—CHARACTER OF THE DISTRICT—TUCKAHOE—ORIGIN OF THE NAME—CHOPTANK RIVER—TIME OF BIRTH—GENEALOGICAL TREES—MODE OF COUNTING TIME—NAMES OF GRANDPARENTS—THEIR POSITION—GRANDMOTHER ESPECIALLY ESTEEMED—“BORN TO GOOD LUCK”—SWEET POTATOES—SUPERSTITION—THE LOG CABIN—ITS CHARMS—SEPARATING CHILDREN—MY AUNTS—THEIR NAMES—FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF BEING A SLAVE—OLD MASTER—GRIEFS AND JOYS OF CHILDHOOD—COMPARATIVE HAPPINESS OF …
Douglass describes life on Col. Lloyd’s plantation as marked by hunger and especially cold, sleeping without a bed, eating mush like animals, and concluding that slavery is a crime by age nine.
grating of my house of bondage. Such beams seem all the brighter from the general darkness into which they penetrate, and the impression they make is vividly distinct and beautiful. As I have before intimated, I was seldom whipped—and never severely—by my old master. I suffered little from the treatment I received, except from hunger and cold. These were my two great physical troubles. I could neither get a sufficie…
Douglass explains he has lived under Captain (Thomas) Auld for years on Col. Lloyd’s plantation, then returns as part of Auld’s household with Rowena, noting their cruelty, and the return of hunger after earlier better treatment.
of my affection became attached, they were rudely broken by some unnatural outside power; and I was beginning to look away to heaven for the rest denied me on earth. But, to my story. It was now more than seven years since I had lived with Master Thomas Auld, in the family of my old master, on Col. Lloyd’s plantation. We were almost entire strangers to each other; for, when I knew him at the house of my old master, …
He describes preferring freedom over Maryland, correcting the idea that freed enslaved people would move north, and recounts earning his first free dollar on the wharves in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
you into the secret, you would have defeated the enterprise entirely; but for this, I should have been really glad to have made you acquainted with my intentions to leave. You may perhaps want to know how I like my present condition. I am free to say, I greatly prefer it to that which I occupied in Maryland. I am, however, by no means prejudiced against the state as such. Its geography, climate, fertility, and produ…
Las Casas argues that Spanish cruelty rapidly kills and depopulates regions within two or three years, leading cities to be burned out, land to lie fallow, and other provinces (Popayan, Cali) to be devastated.
to the *Spaniards* already) this Kingdom will soon decay and be made desolate, and consequently the Land being destitute of *Indians*, who should manure it, will lye fallow and incultivated. And here is to be noted, how pestilential and inhumane the cruelty of these Tyrants hath been, and how violently exercised, when as in two or three years space, they were all slain, and the Country wholly desolate and deserted, …
After the author’s matter-of-fact summary, an editor-like narrator quotes an anonymous epistle and adds brief cruelty stories about sheep slaughter, famine, child murder to avoid starvation, cannibalized infants, and a boasting threat for future listeners.
in his Imperial State, and prosper him in all his Attempts, that he may remedy the Distempers of the Christian Church, and Crown him at last with Eternal Felicity, *Amen*. After I had published this Treatise, certain Laws and Constitutions, enacted by his Majesty then at *Baraclona* in the Month of _December, An. Dom._ 1542, promulgated and published the Year ensuing in the City of *Madera*, whereby it is provided, …