- Joined
- Feb 15, 2015
- Location
- New York, New York
Found this photograph on Pinterest of a family with their slave (I assume she's a slave). Was it unusual to include a slave in the family portrait? I think it's pre-Civil War.
Here is the title from the LOC - Group portrait, possibly a family, with an African American woman.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010647808/
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The verso of the CDV shows a Connecticut photographer. Maybe it's a Northern family with a servant. We've seen photos of Custer with Eliza his cook.
Found this photograph on Pinterest of a family with their slave (I assume she's a slave). Was it unusual to include a slave in the family portrait? I think it's pre-Civil War.
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I am familiar with this photograph. It's taken in Connecticut (or at least a Connecticut photographer). Interesting concept that one would consider the black person is a slave. My mind thinks otherwise. It could be a group of abolitionists. It could be a group of friends -- point blank -- who decided to memorialize themselves in an image. There could be any possibilities and stories can run rampart. The actual story is long forgotten and with the angels.
-Yulie
Certainly didn't mean to offend anyone by my assumption. I drew my conclusion from other photographs of the era that were similar in nature that were of a families with their slaves taken in the South pre-war.
There was a lot of that going around in New Milford -- there are three houses still standing today that are confirmed as Underground Railroad sites:It could be a group of abolitionists.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Ustick_Walter_&_family_c1850.jpgThere's another few somewhere, the only danger posting these is by the time they get to Pinterest someone will assume a black person included in a family portrait is enslaved. Maybe it's not a problem on Pinterest? It is on Ebay, Guessing someone like a nanny who has been with this family so long they're become part of it. Pre war also, rats, LoC or NYPL? Been so long I can't remember!
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