Frederick Douglass was widely considered the most photographed American in the 19th century, though he never smiled in a single portrait.
He stares out of the frame with a look of quiet dignity, but never joviality or contentment.
The reason for this is simple – he didn’t want to perpetuate the myth of the “Happy Slave.”
Douglass was born into bondage until he fled to the North at age 20. He was considered a fugitive for nine more years until 1845 when English friends raised $711.66 to buy his freedom. He was already a famous orator, author and abolitionist.
But he knew the power of a picture and how a still image of him grinning ear-to-ear might be used by slaveholders to indicate that people of color enjoyed their own servitude.
Now 158 years after the Civil War, the Florida Department of Education is trying to perpetuate that same myth…
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Politicians Are Poody Heads 