John Brown. Ask me again and I'll knock you down.

Banned Histories of Race in America

This week was the 164^th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and it reminds me of this image:

Published in 1863, it’s called “John Brown. Meeting the slave-mother and her child on the steps of Charlestown jail on his way to execution”. The print was made as part of an abolitionist propaganda and recruiting effort. The idea was to create images and literature to inspire Northern white people to do the right thing by fighting against slavery. These efforts portrayed abolitionists as righteous and Southerners as dimwit “slavites”.

White abolitionist leaders also thought it would be a good idea for this propaganda to portray enslaved Black people as helpless victims.