Slavery Propaganda

What happens when white slaveholders get scared?

Let's review!

1794 Patent for cotton gin

1800 Gabriel's Rebellion

1808 U.S. stops participation in international slave trade

1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion

1790s - 1860s

  • Second Middle Passage
  • Underground Railroad
  • Abolitionism
  • Publication of slave narratives

In response to rebellions
and increased calls for abolition,
pro-slavery forces launched their own propaganda...

Depiction of
Turner's Rebellion

Sometimes pro-slavery forces
created their propaganda
in direct response
to abolitionist propaganda...

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Published in 1851,
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel introduced many
white audiences to
the the horrors of slavery and the humanity of enslaved people.

Anti-Tom Literature

In response,
white southern authors published their own novels asserting black people could not live on their own without the supervision and guidance of paternal white slaveholders.

One successful bit of propaganda
that still lingers
in popular history today
is the myth of
the "Happy Slave"

What versions of this myth have you heard?
In what context have you heard them?

Depiction
of
"Happy
Slaves"

Pro-slavery propaganda wasn't limited to
pamphlets and literature...

This is Jim Crow.

He even wrote a song called Jump Jim Crow that he would customize for local audiences as part of his minstrel show.

Jim Crow was a character created by white comedian Thomas D. Rice around 1830.

Rice performed as Jim Crow in blackface,
becoming one of the most famous actors of his time.

Now you're going to look for examples of pro-slavery propaganda yourselves

  • Use whatever search terms you think will be fruitful
  • Everyone will search individually, then decide as a group on one example to upload into a Google Slides presentation using this link:
  • Be ready to share information about your search, your source, and why you think it's a valid example