Ant slave-making behavior was twisted into a proof that enslaved people prefer their captors.

Evidence

Manly sees two lessons to be gleaned from the ants. First, they demonstrate a benevolent paternalism, since the smaller ants, who are enslaved by the larger ants, “are scarcely equal to their own protection against any other troop that chose to attack them.” Furthermore, Manly notes the wisdom of their instinctive tactics: the ant slave-master species, which is “wiser than the African kings,” steals eggs and hatches them in its own nest rather than capturing adults. Manly concludes, “So they grow up with an affection for their captors, when otherwise they would have shared in all the instinctive horror, and hatred for the slaveholders which reigns throughout the separate nest of negroes.” He concluded with a message for his northern listeners: “It surely ought to comfort the abolitionists to know that although the ants do hold slaves, the masters are humane and gentle, and the slaves are contented, industrious, and happy.” — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 238

Categorization

• SEED: The idea that abducting children so they grow up loving captors was praised as ‘wisdom’ is a chilling angle for an essay on how ideologies justify atrocity.
• XREF: Connects to moral panic and false consciousness literatures about how ideology frames subordination as protection.