{"id":{"repo_id":"baylor","oai_identifier":"oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/13034"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/baylor/oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/13034","repository":{"repo_id":"baylor","name":"Baylor University","base_url":"https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Dismantling Lost Cause fables : a content analysis examining narrative and visual representations of slavery in U.S. history textbooks.","abstract":"Lost Cause revisionism obscures racialized chattel slavery's foundational position in antebellum society and its significance as the cause of the American Civil War. Misperceptions about enslavement and the social construction of race abound in modern classrooms due to vague coverage and Eurocentric perspectives in U.S. history textbooks. Thus, slavery is simultaneously decontextualized and normalized in narrative descriptions and visual imagery. Lost Cause fables embedded in the explicit curricula persuaded generations of students that slavery was an economic inevitability legally and politically sanctioned in the British colonies of North America and the United States of America. This content analysis study examined visual imagery and narrative descriptions of enslavement in six primary- and secondary-level U.S. history textbooks. Textbook inclusion criteria drew from national and state-adopted texts to assess horizontal and vertical alignment across U.S. history curricula. Critical race theory informed the data collection and analysis procedures focusing on the centrality and social construction of race particularly relating to racialized enslavement in British North America. Analysis centered on textbook representations of racialized slavery and developmentally-appropriate lessons about America's racial, social, and gender hierarchies. The findings indicated that current U.S. history textbooks reproduce nineteenth-century Lost Cause ideology by justifying enslavement and normalizing Whiteness. Narrative descriptions of enslavement used sanitized language echoing Lost Cause fables about fair treatment and benevolent patriarchal enslavers. Visual representations illustrated antebellum contrasts from moonlight and magnolia imagery of plantation homes and heroic portraits of Confederate generals to distressing images lash-scarred backs of enslaved people and Ku Klux Klan members threatening Black families in their homes. The findings illustrated the defense of antebellum culture and the Confederacy, which have considerable consequences for 21st-century society. The study's findings have implications for key decision-makers regarding the current and future framing of race-based chattel slavery in U.S. history textbooks and explicit social studies curricula.","abstract_html":"Lost Cause revisionism obscures racialized chattel slavery's foundational position in antebellum society and its significance as the cause of the American Civil War. Misperceptions about enslavement and the social construction of race abound in modern classrooms due to vague coverage and Eurocentric perspectives in U.S. history textbooks. Thus, slavery is simultaneously decontextualized and normalized in narrative descriptions and visual imagery. Lost Cause fables embedded in the explicit curricula persuaded generations of students that slavery was an economic inevitability legally and politically sanctioned in the British colonies of North America and the United States of America. This content analysis study examined visual imagery and narrative descriptions of enslavement in six primary- and secondary-level U.S. history textbooks. Textbook inclusion criteria drew from national and state-adopted texts to assess horizontal and vertical alignment across U.S. history curricula. Critical race theory informed the data collection and analysis procedures focusing on the centrality and social construction of race particularly relating to racialized enslavement in British North America. Analysis centered on textbook representations of racialized slavery and developmentally-appropriate lessons about America's racial, social, and gender hierarchies. The findings indicated that current U.S. history textbooks reproduce nineteenth-century Lost Cause ideology by justifying enslavement and normalizing Whiteness. Narrative descriptions of enslavement used sanitized language echoing Lost Cause fables about fair treatment and benevolent patriarchal enslavers. Visual representations illustrated antebellum contrasts from moonlight and magnolia imagery of plantation homes and heroic portraits of Confederate generals to distressing images lash-scarred backs of enslaved people and Ku Klux Klan members threatening Black families in their homes. The findings illustrated the defense of antebellum culture and the Confederacy, which have considerable consequences for 21st-century society. The study's findings have implications for key decision-makers regarding the current and future framing of race-based chattel slavery in U.S. history textbooks and explicit social studies curricula.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Forward, Courtenay Lonnquist, 1976-"],"institution":"Baylor University.","degree_name":"Ed.D.","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Foster, Marquita D."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05","date_published":"2024-05","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:07:56Z","subjects":["Slavery.","Race.","Lost Cause ideology.","United Daughters of the Confederacy.","White supremacy.","United States Civil War.","United States history textbooks.","Critical race theory (CRT)"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13034","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Foster, Marquita D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Forward, Courtenay Lonnquist, 1976-"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2024-09-13T13:22:57Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2024-09-13T13:22:57Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2024-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ed.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Baylor University."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Slavery.","Race.","Lost Cause ideology.","United Daughters of the Confederacy.","White supremacy.","United States Civil War.","United States history textbooks.","Critical race theory (CRT)"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13034"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Lost Cause revisionism obscures racialized chattel slavery's foundational position in antebellum society and its significance as the cause of the American Civil War. Misperceptions about enslavement and the social construction of race abound in modern classrooms due to vague coverage and Eurocentric perspectives in U.S. history textbooks. Thus, slavery is simultaneously decontextualized and normalized in narrative descriptions and visual imagery. Lost Cause fables embedded in the explicit curricula persuaded generations of students that slavery was an economic inevitability legally and politically sanctioned in the British colonies of North America and the United States of America. This content analysis study examined visual imagery and narrative descriptions of enslavement in six primary- and secondary-level U.S. history textbooks. Textbook inclusion criteria drew from national and state-adopted texts to assess horizontal and vertical alignment across U.S. history curricula. Critical race theory informed the data collection and analysis procedures focusing on the centrality and social construction of race particularly relating to racialized enslavement in British North America. Analysis centered on textbook representations of racialized slavery and developmentally-appropriate lessons about America's racial, social, and gender hierarchies. The findings indicated that current U.S. history textbooks reproduce nineteenth-century Lost Cause ideology by justifying enslavement and normalizing Whiteness. Narrative descriptions of enslavement used sanitized language echoing Lost Cause fables about fair treatment and benevolent patriarchal enslavers. Visual representations illustrated antebellum contrasts from moonlight and magnolia imagery of plantation homes and heroic portraits of Confederate generals to distressing images lash-scarred backs of enslaved people and Ku Klux Klan members threatening Black families in their homes. The findings illustrated the defense of antebellum culture and the Confederacy, which have considerable consequences for 21st-century society. The study's findings have implications for key decision-makers regarding the current and future framing of race-based chattel slavery in U.S. history textbooks and explicit social studies curricula."]},{"key":"dc:format.mimetype","label":"Dc Format Mimetype","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Dismantling Lost Cause fables : a content analysis examining narrative and visual representations of slavery in U.S. history textbooks."]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Foster, Marquita D."],"dc:creator":["Forward, Courtenay Lonnquist, 1976-"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2024-09-13T13:22:57Z"],"dc:date.available":["2024-09-13T13:22:57Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2024-05"],"dc:description.abstract":["Lost Cause revisionism obscures racialized chattel slavery's foundational position in antebellum society and its significance as the cause of the American Civil War. Misperceptions about enslavement and the social construction of race abound in modern classrooms due to vague coverage and Eurocentric perspectives in U.S. history textbooks. Thus, slavery is simultaneously decontextualized and normalized in narrative descriptions and visual imagery. Lost Cause fables embedded in the explicit curricula persuaded generations of students that slavery was an economic inevitability legally and politically sanctioned in the British colonies of North America and the United States of America. This content analysis study examined visual imagery and narrative descriptions of enslavement in six primary- and secondary-level U.S. history textbooks. Textbook inclusion criteria drew from national and state-adopted texts to assess horizontal and vertical alignment across U.S. history curricula. Critical race theory informed the data collection and analysis procedures focusing on the centrality and social construction of race particularly relating to racialized enslavement in British North America. Analysis centered on textbook representations of racialized slavery and developmentally-appropriate lessons about America's racial, social, and gender hierarchies. The findings indicated that current U.S. history textbooks reproduce nineteenth-century Lost Cause ideology by justifying enslavement and normalizing Whiteness. Narrative descriptions of enslavement used sanitized language echoing Lost Cause fables about fair treatment and benevolent patriarchal enslavers. Visual representations illustrated antebellum contrasts from moonlight and magnolia imagery of plantation homes and heroic portraits of Confederate generals to distressing images lash-scarred backs of enslaved people and Ku Klux Klan members threatening Black families in their homes. The findings illustrated the defense of antebellum culture and the Confederacy, which have considerable consequences for 21st-century society. The study's findings have implications for key decision-makers regarding the current and future framing of race-based chattel slavery in U.S. history textbooks and explicit social studies curricula."],"dc:format.mimetype":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13034"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:rights":["Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission."],"dc:subject":["Slavery.","Race.","Lost Cause ideology.","United Daughters of the Confederacy.","White supremacy.","United States Civil War.","United States history textbooks.","Critical race theory (CRT)"],"dc:title":["Dismantling Lost Cause fables : a content analysis examining narrative and visual representations of slavery in U.S. history textbooks."],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["Baylor University."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:07:56Z"}