White slave propaganda

Slavery had existed for a longer time there, and in the generally smaller holdings, slaves had lived more closely with white workers and masters, leading to more contact between the groups.

The scale of the sexual exploitation is suggested by research that show the DNA of contemporary African Americans is, on average, 24% European in origin.

[8] The character of Eliza in the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was described as a quadroon slave (one-quarter black ancestry), whose child also appeared to be "all-but-white".

On May 19 and 20, 1856, Sumner spoke in the Senate, comparing Southern political positions to the sexual exploitation of slaves then taking place in the South.

Two days later Sumner was beaten almost to death on the floor of the Senate in the Capitol by Representative Preston Brooks from South Carolina, known as a hothead.

With the exception of Iola's grandmother, who is "unmistakably colored",[14] all members of the family have so much European ancestry that they can easily pass for white.

When Iola's uncle, Robert Johnson, escapes from slavery and distinguishes himself in the Union army, a white officer compares him to the other former slaves among his soldiers: "You do not look like them, you do not talk like them.

Their light complexions contrasted sharply with those of the three adults, Wilson, Mary, and Robert; and that of the fifth child, Isaac—'a black boy of eight years; but none the less intelligent than his whiter companions.

The resulting images were produced in the carte de visite format and were sold for twenty-five cents each, with the profits of the sale being directed to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks back in Louisiana to support education of freedmen.

Predominantly ethnic Irish mobs had protested the draft law, as wealthier men could buy substitutes rather than serve in the war.

Carol Goodman, in "Visualizing the Color Line", has argued that the photos alluded to physical and sexual abuse of the children's mothers.

When publishing the photo of the eight former slaves, the editor of Harper's Weekly wrote that slavery permits slave-holding "'gentlemen' [to] seduce [the] most friendless and defenseless of women."

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, in "Portraits of a People", has argued that the usage of props, such as the American flag and books, helped to provide context for Northern viewers, and also to emphasize that the purpose of the photos was to raise money for education of former slaves by funding schools in Louisiana.

She also noted that the use of "white" children to illustrate the damage caused by institutional slavery, whose victims were overwhelmingly visibly people of color, demonstrated the contemporary racism of both Southern and Northern societies.