We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.

Child’s aphorism condemns a recurring logic of oppression: a dominant group inflicts deprivation or violence, then uses the resulting weakness as “proof” that the victims deserve continued subjugation. The image of crushing someone “to the earth” and then trampling them “forever” exposes how inequality is often self-justifying—created by policy and prejudice, then cited as natural inferiority or permanent unfitness. In the context of Child’s reform-minded writing (especially antislavery and women’s rights), the line functions as a moral indictment of systems that manufacture dependency and then punish it, urging readers to recognize complicity and to replace blame with responsibility and repair.