Anti-Slavery Children's Primers

Anti-Slavery Children's Primers

Transcript below

Abolitionists did not forget the very impressionable new generation. Within many larger publications (almanacs, newspapers, and other periodicals), there was a children’s section to help groom an abolitionist future. The Slave’s Friend is one example of a publication that was dedicated solely to children. Authors also wrote children’s books on slavery and various versions of the alphabet of slavery to appeal to children as well as to assist parents and other adults as they broached the difficult topic with youth. This section also includes an image of The New York African Free School, a critique of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s representations of Black children in her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the Nautilus Life Insurance company’s death ledger, containing the policies taken out by enslavers to recoup the value of their human property upon the latter’s death.

 

End of Transcript

Voice of Dr. Michelle Commander, recorded by David Maki

Installation Image by Roy Rochlin. Latimer/Edison Gallery, Schomburg Center