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Abolitionist societies employed the new photographic medium as powerful propaganda. After the Emancipation Proclamation, they sought to maintain flagging Union war fervor in the face of lost battles and long casualty lists.

According to the 4 July 1863 Harpers Weekly, "McPherson and Oliver, Baton Rouge, La." distributed this carte de visite photograph of "Gordon" escaped from his master in Mississippi, "his back furrowed and scarred with the traces of a whipping administered on Christmas day last." (Click on the image to view further details) [Kathleen Collins, "The Scourged Back," History of Photography 9 (January 1985): 43-45. This specific whipping was made to appear more brutal by the subject's rare Keloid Cyst skin condition, causing excessive growth of scar tissue.]

This photograph is arguably one of the most visually powerful images ever produced. As propaganda to shock the viewer with the horror of slavery, its force only intensifies with passage of time. Perhaps the vast majority of people today, have a mental image of slavery matching this picture. Nevertheless, Gordon was a freedman, escaped to Union occupied territory. Visual evidence of his slave experience remained brutally factual, but propagandistically posed by whites for a large audience--a scenario suspect to the historian. Much of the brutality of whipping actually came from the 19th century, not from the institution of slavery. Society used whipping extensively in criminal justice, martial discipline, even juvenile correction.

One fallacy of this photograph as historical document, rests in specifying physical brutality as the worst evil of slavery. Would human slavery be any less abhorrent, if humane, 20th century methods were used for correction and punishment? Of course not. Slavery's ultimate horror was not on the human back, but within the human heart. The vivid reality of this photograph obscures the institution's deepest evil of dehumanization.

Under Southern law, chattel slavery followed the mother. A tiny percentage of African American blood entrapped a person in chains of enslavement. Abolitionists circulated a picture series of very white children so entrapped. [Kathleen Collins, "Portraits of Slave Children," History of Photography, 9 (July 1985):, 187-210.] Ironically, abolitionists designed such photographs to enflame the same endemic racism that underlay Southern slavery. Pictured alone in this setting, swarthy Wilson would elicit minimal attention. By 1864, opponents of Afro-American slavery already rallied around the Union flag. Very white children, provoked anger against Southern slavery specifically for its inclusion of Caucasian blood. Such images might be considered sophisticated visual appeals to racial prejudice in the name of a "higher" cause.

"LEARNING IS WEALTH. Wilson, Charley, Rebecca & Rosa. Slaves from New Orleans." Carte de visite photograph of white slave children, imprinted on the reverse: "Chas. Paxson, Photographer, New York. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by S. TACKABERRY . . . The nett [sic] proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen'l Banks." (Click on the image to view further details)

Although wartime contaminated "work and cabin" scenes and abolitionist propaganda images of freedmen provide details of the factual physical reality of slavery, they merely whet the appetite for further information. The most illuminating aspects of slavery lie within time obscured intricacies of the master/slave relationship: the compromise, accommodation, limited perspective of both races entrapped within the institution. Earlier photographs exist that unmask this master/slave interaction, but they are rare.

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All assumptions made about the following photographs are highly subjective and certainly open to alternate interpretation. It nevertheless remains important to search such images for their valuable primary information. Danger lies in limiting analysis to a small number of pictures. Some of the following views represent "type" photographs with other known examples which partially compensates.

A visual search through the following antebellum slave photographs for perspective on slavery, encounters another major limitation. Whites posed the subjects for a white audience. These images reveal most about how whites within the institution viewed their slaves. Some opportunity exists, however, to empathize with the slaves themselves.

[Richard Rudisill, Mirror Image: The Influence of the Daguerreotype on American Society (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971), 32. Rudisill writes, "the greatest majority of the daguerreotypes produced were made deliberately. The relatively slow nature of the process usually meant that candid pictures were not possible. . . . whatever was recorded on the daguerreotype plate was there by design and by a choice."]

(Click on the image to view further details)

A slave nurse and two white children from Lynchburg, Virginia. A sixth plate ambrotype, taken about 1858, by an unknown photographer.

Removing the brass mat reveals the mother standing behind, steadying her daughter's head. This image documents a degree of family status for the slave. To what extent this status derived from familial affection or from a showy pretention of ownership is lost to time.

(Click on the image to view further details)

A white child and slave "companion," probably assigned at birth. A sixth plate daguerreotype, c. 1855, taken by an unknown North Carolina photographer. (Click on the image to view further details) [Eric L. McKitrick, ed., Slavery Defended: The Views of the Old South, (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963).]

This image possibly documents a master's expectation of friendship, trust, & responsibility from his slave, for the benefit of his child. Though the white child is barefoot and simply dressed, the contrasting rough, home-spun clothes of the slave child provide interesting historical perspective. The opiate of "superiority" dosed to white children, was as stupefying as the web of "inferiority" encircling this slave child. From birth, their culture demanded acceptance of the Southern defense of slavery in all its historical, moral, religious, humanitarian, and scientific aspects. Where slavery functioned efficiently, only extraordinary human beings could independently escape ingrained psychological conditioning.

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Text and digital images copyright (1997). All rights reserved. Copying or redistribution in any manner is prohibited. Any public or commercial use of these materials without prior written permission is a violation of copyright law.

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AMBROTYPE

An ambrotype is an underexposed (thus whitened), wet collodion negative, set against a dark background (usually paint, cloth or paper) to appear as a positive image. Ambrotypes sometimes superficially resemble daguerreotypes because they were placed in the same style cases. They are, however, an entirely different photographic process secured on a piece of glass as opposed to the piece of silvered copper plate used for a daguerreotype.

Iodized collodion poured on the glass formed a sticky coating, which was then sensitized with silver nitrate, and exposed in the camera while wet. The ambrotype remained a one of a kind image, just as the daguerreotype was a one of a kind image.

In 1852, Frederick Scott Archer introduced ambrotypes into England. By 1854, the process took hold in America, gradually eclipsing the daguerreotype. The ambrotype was less reflective than the daguerreotype and thus easier to view, but it usually captured less detail and less tonal range. Ambrotypes were easy to tint and cheaper to make and sell than daguerreotypes. By the mid 1860s, tintypes and carte de visites replaced the ambrotype.

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CARTE DE VISITE

This visiting card style of photograph was a French invention, patented about 1854. In 1860, "Royal Album" carte de visite portraits of the royal family elevated the style into fashion.

Millions of cdv's were produced over the next fifteen years. In America, cdv's gained popularity during the Civil War because they were cheap, sturdy (for mailing), and available in multiple copies. Many individuals sat for their cdv portrait, but mass produced portraits of celebrities were also sold. Supposedly, more than 100,000 carte de visite photographs were produced and distributed of Abraham Lincoln alone.

The bottom or back of the cdv often advertized the photographer's name and address. Carte de visite's were usually collected in special albums designed to hold them. A typical cdv portrait was a head and shoulders or full length pose--usually an albumen photograph, but occasionally a salt print. The photograph was mounted on a stiff card measuring about 2 1/2 by 4 1/4 inches.

SALT PRINT

A sheet of paper sensitized in a solution of salt (sodium chloride) and then coated with silver nitrate on one side only. The salt combined with the silver nitrate to form light sensitive silver chloride. After drying, the paper was contact printed in sunlight through a glass or paper negative in a printing frame.

By 1860, albumen prints largely replaced salt prints. Confederate photographers briefly revived the salt print process, presumably after the Union blockade cut off chemicals or supplies needed for the albumen process.

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