| Many historians agree that slavery helped disunite the United States in the 19th century, and, during the antebellum period, slavery confounded America's best minds who failed to eliminate its "burden" to American society. Further, despite their restrictions on black Americans---both free and slave---white society feared slave insurrection. This dissertation provides a long-range examination of discourses about the "Burden of Slavery" found in antebellum newspapers, focusing on Northern and Southern newspaper coverage of the slave system under stress, considered here as slave revolts or slave conspiracies. Newspaper coverage of four slave "events" were examined: Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave conspiracy in Henrico County, Virginia; Denmark Vesey's 1822 slave conspiracy in Charleston, South Carolina; Nat Turner's 1831 slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia; and John Brown's 1859 raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.; Findings indicated several dominant discourses about slavery that emerged in newspaper coverage of these events: "Slavery as a threat to the nation"; "How to maintain slavery against internal threats"; How to maintain slavery against external threats"; and "How to eliminate slavery". Important was an increasing sectionalist discourse that, by 1859, as reflected in Northern and Southern newspaper coverage, a nation irreconcilably split over slavery. Also important was a recurring discourse involved the loyalty of slaves and free blacks appeared throughout the newspaper coverage of these events. This discourse has been labeled a "good Negro" discourse. Another discursive formation indicated that the suppression of civil liberties, especially for free blacks, and of the press frequently occurred as challenges to the slave system occurred. Research also revealed common social constructions of the slave rebel or conspirator found in newspaper coverage of Prosser, Vesey, Turner, and Brown. These findings showed that, despite the American ideal that encouraged a pursuit of liberty, these men were constructed as enemies to the social system, and, thus, marginalized in newspaper coverage. Only constructions of John Brown in Northern newspapers indicated a shift in newspaper coverage from madman to martyr. |
