‘Texas Gave Up Land For Slavery’ A screenshot of a Tumblr post discusses whether Oklahoma's borders resulting from Texas giving land away to "keep slavery."
Is There a Painting of J. Marion Sims’ Experiments on Black Women at the Alabama State Capitol? A popular Facebook post misstated the location of the painting depicting the gynecologist's work.
Does the NYPD Have a Slave Master With a Whip on Its Logo? Numerous social media posts zeroed in on a portion of the purported New York Police Department logo which appeared to show a man holding a whip.
Rep. James Clyburn: Black People Were ‘Fully Employed During Slavery’ Controversy In February 2020, a number of social media and blog posts claimed that House Majority Whip James Clyburn “refused to give credit” to United States President Donald Trump for low Black unemployment numbers, because Black Americans were “fully employed during slavery”: WOW: This is how House Majority Whip James Clyburn responded to lowest ever black unemployment: […]
Did Riots and War End Japanese Internment, Slavery, and World War II? On July 16 2019, the Facebook page “Close the Camps” shared the following screenshot (archived here) of a Facebook post asserting that riots, rebellion, and war were necessary to put a stop to concentration camps, World War II, and slavery: https://www.facebook.com/CloseCamps/photos/a.2360083690947082/2376037232685061/?type=3&theater The original post was published by Facebook user Rick Glass that same day. In full, […]
Did Slaves Braid Routes to Freedom Into Hairstyles? In February 2019, a Facebook user shared a post (archived here) that showed patterns for hairstyles with a claim that slaves used braid patterns to plot out routes to freedom: What if I told you all, during slavery, our ancestors braided escape route patterns in their hairstyles too flee bondage and seek freedom from their oppessors! […]
‘Why Did Slaves Come to America?’ School Worksheet In March 2019, two viral Facebook posts circulated with an image of an alarmingly inaccurate “Why Did Slaves Come to America?” worksheet. The viral Facebook posts were part of a larger controversy in February and March 2019 about myriad incomplete, deeply inaccurate, and outright misleading school lessons on slavery in various places across the United States in […]
Underground Railroad to Mexico? On February 13 2019, a Facebook user shared a screenshot of a tweet, originally tweeted a day earlier by @HISTORY about a purported version of the Underground Railroad running south to Mexico: Text for the tweet read: Slaveholders knew that enslaved people were escaping to Mexico, and the U.S. tried to get Mexico to sign […]
