I found one reference for "Labor and Wait"
Text quoted from here.
"A wheatsheaf with a spade, a sickle, and the motto 'Labor and Wait'.
The wheatsheaf and the motto Labor and Wait is a symbol of the Co-operative society. Apparently labour was deliberately spelt in the American manner to express support for American anti-slavery campaigners.
Broad Quay House is on the site of the old headquarters of the Bristol Cooperative Society."
I only found one
slavery reference attributed to Frederick Douglass saying "I will continue to pray, labor, and wait, believing that she cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity."
"Labor and Wait" I suspect has more to do with labouring under the suspression of what was deemed god given rights; labouring until the final judgement under god, is perhaps more a religious slogan, and I dare say an agricultural one which may have been taken up by the abolitionist movement, but would've been exclusive to them alone. This explanation is more labouring, whilst biting one's tongue. Perhaps the case with injustices.
Of course, it can also mean 'labor and wait' for your reward; a share of the harvest, which is perhaps the more likely origin?
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