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What Was Christmas Like for America’s Enslaved People?
For some, it was a rare time of respite; for others, an opportunity for resistance.
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For some, it was a rare time of respite; for others, an opportunity for resistance.
How did Americans living under slavery experience the Christmas holidays? While early accounts from white Southerners after the Civil War often painted an idealized picture of owners’ generosity met by grateful workers happily feasting, singing and dancing, the reality was far more complex.
In the 1830s, the large slaveholding states of Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas became the first in the United States to declare Christmas a state holiday. It was in these Southern states and others during the antebellum period (1812-1861) that many Christmas traditions giving gifts, singing carols, decorating homes firmly took hold in American culture. Many enslaved workers got their longest break of the year typically a handful of days and ....

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