A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Slavery Quotes

This isn't strictly about slavery, but it mentions mental conditioning as a part of the process—part of how the peasants are enslaved is because they are brought up knowing nothing else. This also connects to the idea that life in the 6th century is a lot like life in the 19th century.

There's some serious irony between the title freemen and how free these men actually are. Twain loved to use serious irony, but makes his point without a whole lot of snarking here. If you can't leave somewhere when you want to, it's pretty hard to call yourself free. The point pretty much makes its own gravy.

Pretty gutsy move here, equating the Catholic Church—and to some extent, organized religion in general—with a form of slavery. This kind of point would be right at home on a news show today, with some red-faced pundit in Shouty Man mode arguing either for or against the statement. Twain didn't have cable news though, and he expressed himself with a bit more elegance, but his point is just as blunt.