Henry Louis Gates Quotes About Slaves

Quotes about: Slaves

• No one thinks of Mexico and Peru as black. But Mexico and Peru together got 700,000 Africans in the slave trade. The coast of Acapulco was a black city in the 1870s. And the Veracruz Coast on the gulf of Mexico and the Costa Chica, south of Acapulco are traditional black lands.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Thinking, Land, Cities

• Patriotism is best exemplified through auto-critique. When you're willing to stand up within the group and say, 'It is wrong for Black people to be anti-Semitic,' or 'It is wrong for America to discriminate against persons of African descent and made them slaves and based its wealth upon free labor,' it's crucial to say that.

  Henry Louis Gates

  America, People, Black

  "Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr". "The Tavis Smiley show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. March 19, 2008.

• You can find virtually everybody black back as far as the 1870 census. Why 1870? That's when the ex-slaves first have surnames. But if you find your great-great-grandfather in 1870 and it says he's 50, that means he was born in 1820 and you're back to 1820 already. For an American that's pretty damned good, you know?

  Henry Louis Gates

  Mean, Black, Grandfather

  "35 Million Ways to Be Black". Interview with Adam Hochschild, www.motherjones.com. March 14, 2007.

• The first slave came to Florida in 1526. The first one we know by name, Esteban, which means Stephen, came a couple of years later. So, we start with the stories of Juan Garrido and Esteban to show that African-American people have been here a century longer than anyone thought, and that the diversity we see in the African-American community today has existed since the beginning.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Couple, Mean, Years

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• You can say I had a severe case of 'Roots' envy. I wanted to be like Alex Haley, and I wanted to be able to... do my family tree back to the slave ship and then reverse the Middle Passage, as I like to put it, and find the tribe or ethnic group that I was from in Africa.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Roots, Slave Ships, Envy

• You had one guy who was a slave, and another who wasn't. And I actually know what happened to them. [Juan ] Garrido ended up getting good jobs and a pension in Mexico which was the center of New Spain, as it was called. Esteban ended up being killed by the Zuni Indians.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Jobs, Guy, Spain

  "Gates Unlocked: Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The "The African Americans" Interview". Interview With Kam Williams, lasentinel.net. October 17, 2013.

• You notice patterns. White guests often are mortified - that word again - when they learn their ancestors owned slaves. But I've never had a black guest who was upset to learn about white ancestry that probably involved forced sexual relations.

  Henry Louis Gates

  White, Upset, Black

• Like the amazing story of Anthony Johnson. This man was a slave, then became free, accumulated 250 acres, and even had his own slave, a black man who took him to court in Virginia in 1654.That man argued that he should be freed like an indentured servant. But Johnson, who we believe was a pure African from Angola, said, "No way, you're my slave." And the court agreed.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Believe, Men, Virginia

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

• The act of writing for the slave constituted the act of creating a public, historical self, not only the self of the individual author but also the self, as it were, of the race.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Writing, Race, Self

  Henry Louis Gates (1989). “Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "racial" Self”, p.108, Oxford University Press on Demand

• Ending the slave trade was contrary to British economic interests. For all its limitations and hypocrisies - British slavery itself, of course, still continued to exist - I still think it was a great moment in human history.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Thinking, Hypocrisy, Slavery

  "35 Million Ways to Be Black". Interview with Adam Hochschild, www.motherjones.com. March 14, 2007.

• Keeping the Union together, freeing slaves and being assassinated all added up to creating 'Lincoln the myth.' He overcame a lot of his own prejudices and became what many would consider the first black man's president.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Men, Creating, Black

• The first slave to read and write was the first to run away.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Running, Writing, Firsts

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Agents, World, Impossible

  Henry Louis Gates Jr. (2012). “The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader”, p.547, Basic Books

• The biggest surprise for me, without a doubt, was that the first black people who came to the United States weren't the 20 who arrived in Jamestown in 1619. All of us had been taught that. Well, guess what? The first African came to Florida in 1513. And the huge shock is we know his name, Juan Garrido, and that he wasn't a slave. He was free! This brother was a conquistador who came with Ponce de Leon. He was looking for the Fountain of Youth just like the white people were.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Brother, Florida, Names

  "Gates Unlocked!". Interview with Kam Williams, www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com.

• The Western stereotype of Africa and its black citizens as devoid of reason and, therefore, subhuman was often shared by white master and black ex-slave alike.

  Henry Louis Gates

  White, Black, Citizens

  Henry Louis Gates Jr. (2012). “The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader”, p.417, Basic Books

• The biggest surprise for me, without a doubt, was that the first black people who came to the United States weren't the 20 who arrived in Jamestown in 1619. All of us had been taught that. The first African came to Florida in 1513. And the huge shock is we know his name, Juan Garrido, and that he wasn't a slave. He was free!

  Henry Louis Gates

  Names, Florida, People

  "Gates Unlocked: Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The "The African Americans" Interview". Interview With Kam Williams, lasentinel.net. October 17, 2013.

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