Missing Colonies in American Myths of Slavery: Where Is the “Deep North” in Sociology Textbooks?

Abstract

This exercise in reflexive sociology consists of a comparative analysis of the standard verbiage of Introduction to Sociology and Sociology of Race/Ethnicity textbooks on the subject of American slavery. We interrogate whether narratives about slavery in sociology textbooks present the system as a peculiar Southern institution, or as a cross-regional institution that includes the Northern colonies. The study found that a majority of the Introductory books present the system as Southern. The majority of the Race/Ethnicity books prominently feature Southern slavery, yet some are more likely to detail Northern slavery and the broader Atlantic World context. Given that the field of sociology is a key carrier of collective-memory institutionalization in its role as a remembrance environment, we argue that it has the potential to impact historical revisionist understandings of American history in public collective memory. Such revisions carry implications for transregional responsibility for racial injustices.