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Part of
Transnational Books for Children 1750-1900: Producers, consumers, encounters
Edited by Charlotte Appel, Nina Christensen and M.O. Grenby
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 15] 2023
► pp. 334–355

Chapter 15
The enslaved in late-Enlightenment stories for children

The real and the imaginary

On the long road towards the abolition of the slave trade and enslavement, European and American books for children, published in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, sought to engage their intended young readers in the debate. In this chapter I counterpoint fictional characterizations of the enslaved with those in autobiographical accounts and in newspaper fugitive slave advertisements. The children’s books of the time depicted the enslaved as objects of pity and in need of rescuing. That positioned them as ideal subjects for authors attempting to cultivate empathy and sensibility in their young readers. Actual enslaved people told a different story, recording both the brutality and savagery of enslavers and their own sustained resistance to enslavement.

Article outline
  • Enslaved people and sensibility in early children’s books
  • The slavery question
  • Recruiting armies of (White) children
  • Amelioration as one answer to the slavery question
  • The very different stories told by enslaved people
  • Towards reparations: Stories from the past make the case for the future
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 8 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.15.15pau
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