I read a great book back in college that talked about the folklore/myths about slavery. Basically, there were those in the South who claimed that blacks were fine under slavery and weren’t looking to be freed.

Of course, their sources for this information were the slaves, who were, de facto, not free to tell them the truth.

So you had the house servant who would tell his masters with a sad face that he was really sad about the Emancipation Proclamation, and then go down in the slave quarters and lead the dancing.

I wish I could remember the name of the book.

Yes, I know, the plural of anecdote is not data. Made for interesting reading, though.