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Film, Video Liberty or Death: Slaves' Suicides & the Fight to Destroy American Slavery

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Liberty or Death: Slaves' Suicides & the Fight to Destroy American Slavery

Summary

  • As northern abolitionists set about trying to exploit mass media to denounce and destroy American slavery, they found themselves wrestling with the problem of slave suicide. Was it an act of principled resistance to tyranny that struck at the heart of the plantation economy? Or was it a measure of abject victimhood that begged to be mourned and avenged through humanitarian intervention? Kluge Fellow Richard Bell describes the deep differences within the northern abolitionist movement as to who had the power to bring slavery to its knees: white evangelicals who might be moved to action by displays of wretched slave suffering, or black slaves with the courage to fight and die for their freedom.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • John W. Kluge Center (Library of Congress), sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2011-08-18.

Headings

  • -  African American History
  • -  Government, Law
  • -  Biography, History

Notes

  • -  Classification: History: America.
  • -  Classification: Political Science.
  • -  Classification: Social Sciences.
  • -  Richard Bell.
  • -  Recorded on 2011-08-18.
  • -  Kids, Families.
  • -  Researchers.
  • -  Teachers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021688722

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body John W. Kluge Center. Liberty or Death: Slaves' Suicides & the Fight to Destroy American Slavery. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-18, 2011. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688722/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & John W. Kluge Center, S. B. (2011) Liberty or Death: Slaves' Suicides & the Fight to Destroy American Slavery. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-18. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688722/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body John W. Kluge Center. Liberty or Death: Slaves' Suicides & the Fight to Destroy American Slavery. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -08-18, 2011. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021688722/>.