“Oppressed people must either reform or reject a religion that preaches spiritual salvation but has little to say about their physical and material conditions. The hypocrisy of white Christians who said their religion condemned darker-skinned people to perpetual slavery even as they worshipped a brown-skinned Jewish man who was put to death by an imperial power could hardly be starker, both then and now.”
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
“Life will not answer to reason. And meaning is too young a thing to have much power over it.”
― The Overstory
― The Overstory
“In the comfortingly distorted view of the past, American slavery came about in the passive sense. That's just the way things were back then. Slavery was an inherited reality, a long-standing if unsavory fact of trade and war. In reality, colonial legislatures consciously conceived American chattel slavery at the turn of the eighteenth century, and they spelled out its terms in painstaking regulatory detail. Virginia's slave codes contained forty-one sections and more than four thousand words.
...
The slave codes of 1705 are among American history's most striking evidence that our nation's greatest sins were achieved with clear forethought and determined maintenance.”
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
...
The slave codes of 1705 are among American history's most striking evidence that our nation's greatest sins were achieved with clear forethought and determined maintenance.”
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
“The most marvelous, unbelievable thing about Black people in America is that they exist. Every imaginable monstrosity that evil can conjure has been inflicted on this population, yet they have not been extinguished.”
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
― Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
“People have no corner on curious behavior. Other creatures—bigger, slower, older, more durable—call the shots, make the weather, feed creation, and create the very air.”
― The Overstory
― The Overstory
Daniel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Daniel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Daniel
Lists liked by Daniel






















