From: Mike Pilla
Date: 3/28/00
Time: 1:48:37 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.158.40
Illustrations from an American Anti-slavery Almanac, 1840
The north seems to be portrayed just as racists and violent as speculations or accusations on how the south had acted towards slaves. Except the first picture “our peculiar domestic institutions” they north was shown to be very racist, brutal even in some cases. And as for the first picture, it illustrates that the northern people weren’t even civilized with themselves. Showing domestic violence such as beatings, hangings, and shootings. These pictures give the north a bad perspective. I’m sure for slaves in the south who wanted to escape to the north; it created a dire sense of despair. Their hopes of freedom and a non-slavery mentality would have soon faded after viewing these pictures. Images of branding, human slaughtering and human hunting would deter anyone’s optimism I’m sure. In a sense these pictures are propaganda. Considering propaganda can be made to better view a situation or be made to slander a situation, this obviously was created to destroy any positive imagery one might have about non-slavery in the north. One possible explanation to why this was created was to deter southern slaves to escaping to the north, making them feel they would receive the same treatment there, maybe even worse then how they were being treated now. Or maybe this was created to show the truth. Northern people did have slaves, and racism did exist. Whatever the reason these images are vivid and disturbing. Creating a bad view of northern politics, and a harsh use of propaganda against the north.