Anti-emancipation arguments centered white loss and never consulted the enslaved.

Evidence

The most damning argument of all was the assertion that emancipation would lead to black equality: “The same power that can liberate our negroes against our will, can and perhaps will confer upon them equality in civil and political privileges with the whites, so, for instance, that negroes may vote for municipal or other officers; may hold such offices themselves; and sit as jurors, magistrates and judges in our courts.” All of the editorial’s arguments against emancipation were focused on how it would negatively affect enslavers and white Americans but not on how it would affect the enslaved. When the editorial considered the enslaved at all, it was merely as projection, because no one had bothered to ask them what they thought. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 72

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘projection’ insight — opponents speaking for the enslaved while never asking them — is a reusable template for analyzing any policy debate where the affected party is talked about but not consulted.