ABSTRACT
During the eighteenth century the North American colonies varied in their framing and discriminatory treatment of African Americans and Native Americans. In war settings Indians who fought back were asserted to be less than human and depraved murderers, a part of the anti-Indian subframe of the white racial frame. In the white framing of enslaved black Americans, Thomas Jefferson expressed fears that the British were inciting them to rebel. Slave uprisings were a recurring concern for the white slaveholders, which is one reason they framed enslaved black men as dangerous and rebellious. A well-developed racial frame was constantly supported by the legitimating discourse of the elite whites who controlled major institutions, including the economy, law, politics, education, and religion. A major part of the ideological effort directed by the American revolutionaries against the British included the explicit construction of a liberty-and-justice frame.
