Mustard Seed Quotes
"Any dream of moving past our wounds, past our warfare, will only come through forgiveness. The North and the South cannot be irreparably divided—whether family to family or state to state."
"If you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can move mountains."
"It must give you peace of mind that you will be there to comfort your father at the end. Many of us are not so fortunate."
"Slavery is over, Sadie. It’s a shameful part of the past but is no longer a stain on our country."
"Keeping your word is important, very important, but sometimes you learn new information that makes breaking your promise the right thing to do."
"When you are fifteen I will tell you. You are too young to learn about such things."
"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ’twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the White men will be in a fix pretty soon."
"Nowhere like Oberlin. Nowhere. Not even other parts of Ohio."
"Don’ look a White person in the eye, and never touch ’em, unless they go to touch you first."
"Mother described them as a unified and happy family living under one roof. Apparently she’d been misrepresenting the situation in this home."
"That’s different than how we take our meals at home, but you can adjust, can’t you, Sadie?"
"Fearing Sadie and Sammy would be confused by the rituals of the meal, before they sat down she had instructed them to take their cues from Johnny to know when to speak or from her to know what utensil to use."
"Our soldiers did not invade your lands, burn crops, and slaughter animals without mercy, leaving everyone, including women and children, to starve."
"Mother taught me to cross-stitch. I’m sure she taught me other things as well, but I do not have many recollections of being with her."
"My mother did not spend very much time with me when I was a child."
"I supposed this made Emily a sister of sorts, but she did not believe that what she felt for Emily were sisterly feelings."
"I only hoped to be a simple minister preaching truth. Seminary was the happiest time of my life,"
"You hoped for kisses and pats, but I am not demonstrative like you. Your desire was confusing and overwhelming."
"Freedom don’ come with a house. Freedom don’ come with a horse. Freedom don’ come with land. Freedom don’ come with food,"
"You ’magine things so diff’rent now? The only thin’ that change is they ain’t so many of us to do all the work. Massa don’ give us money. We gets food, cloth, and"—Sarah waved her hand around—"this place to live. We don’ get no pay."
"Massa don’t take well to anybody that say they want anythin’ diff’rent than he say we get."
"You ac’ like her food the bes’ thin’ you ever ate. You understand me?"
"Thanks to God fo’ bringin’ Mattie and Jordan to me safe. Watch over Samuel in the woods. We glad for this food and for yo mercy. Amen."
"I can tell you ain’t from here by the way you talk," Sarah said to Jordan.
"Jordan and Samuel both went to college. That the most schooling you can get."
"I can’ never leave Fair Oaks till they come back. That hope the only thing keepin’ me going all these years."
"We will find your children and take you all to Oberlin."
"Money is not nearly as important as human kindness," Lisbeth reminded her children.
"Your husband will take care of you. You’ll understand when you are older."
"It wasn’t my choice. Grandmother and Grandfather owned them, not me," Lisbeth replied.
"You go back to Ohio, and you tell them that everyone is happy here and that they can stop intruding upon our freedoms."
"This is their home, the only place they have ever lived. Their brothers and sisters live here. They are proud Virginians and proud to be a part of the United States."
"After all the stress of Fair Oaks and Richmond, it was especially good to be here for a few days."
"Jordan, you and Samuel book smarter than most folks, but that don’ make you world smarter too. Don’ ever forget that."
"You don’ have to know how or why faith work—you jus’ got to make sure you find some when you feelin’ lost."
"Not everybod’ has a pretty life handed to them with a bow."
"I worked hard, extremely hard, to be an excellent student."
"The freedmen are supposed to feel compassion for their former masters because they lost money?"
"God wants all people to blossom into their full capacities."
"Your name is important. It the first thing anybod’ discover about you."
"You pick a name for yourself, and it can be yours in your heart for always, no matter what other folks call you."
"When I’m walking with children, I usually hold their hands as we cross the street to keep them safe."
"Ella, even if I ain’t who you think, I gonna be Ella. It a name given by a mama."
"Please, God, for both of them, let this little girl be Cousin Sarah’s missing daughter."
"You jus’ gets to come and go wherever you like?"
"We gonna buy some supplies, and you gonna go to the orphanage and teach the future."
"Let the wise hear and increase in learning."
"When you learn more you can read it there for yourself."
"You are a very clever girl. You learned that in one lesson!"
"They responded to you. Perhaps because you are Negro. You can give them inspiration that our White teachers cannot."
"They can take away my son, but they can' take away my faith."
"Getting you to lose your hope the biggest weapon they gots. So our best weapon is to hold on to hope, however we can."
"We don' get to pick how big our good gets to be, but each of us picks if we gonna do some good right where we are."
"If enough people put their drop of water in the same place, then we can make a flower bloom... right in the middle of the desert."
"You a sower today, baby. You cast seeds of knowledge to those chil'ren."
"I been plottin' against men like him my whole life."
"We made a promise to our family. And we are keeping it."
"Today is a good day, Mama. No amount of hate can take that from us. We did God's work, coming here."
"Baby girl, we all okay. No need to cry, now."
"You didn’t teach me to be safe, you taught me to be brave."
"Sometimes I went to the quarters with Mattie. On one of those visits, when I was about six, Mattie asked you to teach me that game. I balked, but she insisted I ‘learn something new, Lisbeth.’"
"I’m going to be a teacher in Richmond, with the freed little children. And some not-so-little ones."
"These folks are our kith, the people we are connected to because of our choices. Somewhere between friends and family."
"God, please watch over Sophia. Keep her safe, and help her to come home to Cousin Sarah."
"God, help me to be a worthy guide for these hearts, souls, and minds. Amen."