#slave children

[blondebrainpowered]

Isaac White and Rosina Downs, slave children from New Orleans.

Photographed by Kimball, 477 Broadway, N.Y.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1863, by Geo H. Hanks in the clerk's office of the U.S. for the So. District of New York.

[writinghistorylit]

This is a photograph of slave children, Isaac and Rosa, who had been enslaved in Louisiana. They were freed by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, as the territory of Louisiana was controlled by the United States Army in 1863.  This photograph was taken in New York City and printed as cards that were often sold to help raise money for the aid of newly freed slaves.

[lincolncollection]

“White Slave” Children

Among the thousands of photographs in the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection are five cartes-de-visite of “white slave” children.

Coming from two different abolitionist sources, the photographs shared common purposes—to bolster the Union war effort, especially as a war to end slavery, and to generate support and funds for the education of the newly emancipated slaves.  Those purposes, abolitionists believed, were best accomplished by presenting white Northerners with images of children born slaves who appeared to be as white as their own daughters and sons.*

Fannie Fletcher was “redeemed” from slavery at Fairfax Seminary, Virginia, by Catharine S. Lawrence of New York.  In May 1863, when she was five years old, the child was baptized Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence by Henry Ward Beecher at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.  With Fannie beside him at the pulpit, Beecher exhorted his congregation: “Look upon this child, tell me if you ever saw a fairer, sweeter face?…This is a sample of slavery which clutches for itself everything fair and attractive…. Let your soul burn with fiery indignation against the horrible system which turns into chattels such fair children of God! May God strike for our armies and the right that this accursed thing may be utterly destroyed!”

These photographs are only two of many taken of Fannie in 1863 and distributed widely in abolitionist circles.  The photographs are calculated to make the viewer burn with indignation.  Fannie is prettily dressed, her hair in ringlets and a nosegay in her hands, and her gaze is serious and unguarded.  She is a picture of childhood innocence and vulnerability.

The remaining three photographs of “white slave” children are part of a series of at least twenty-two photographs of “Emancipated Slaves from New Orleans” taken in December 1863 and sold specifically to raise funds for “the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen. Banks.” By that time, there were ninety-five freedmen's schools enrolling nearly ten thousand students in Louisiana, and funding was needed to keep the schools operating.  So the National Freedman’s Association, the American Missionary Association, and several Union Army officers collaborated to send eight former slaves—five children and three adults—on a publicity and fundraising tour of cities in the North.

In its January 30, 1864, issue, Harper’s Weekly published this engraving titled “Emancipated Slaves, White and Colored.” It is based on a photograph of the group and identifies the individuals (l to r): Wilson Chinn (back), Charles Taylor, Augusta Broujey, Mary Johnson, Isaac White, Rebecca Huger, Robert Whitehead (back), and Rosina (Rosa) Downs.

A letter headlined “White and Colored Slaves” in the same issue of Harper’s provided a brief biography of each individual.  The children were described as appearing to be “perfectly white,” “very fair,” and “of unmixed white race.”  A related article titled “Slave Children” informed its white readers, “They are as white, as intelligent, as docile, as most of our own children.”

Although many of the tour photographs included the adults, the focus was clearly on the children, especially the four “white slave” children—Charles, Augusta, Rebecca, and Rosa.  Each of these three photographs focuses on those intelligent, docile, “white” children, who are carefully dressed and groomed to look the part.

*For discussions of this strategy and what it reveals about American Victorian ideas of race, sex, and class, see Mary Niall Mitchell, “The Young White Faces of Slavery” and Carol Goodman, “‘As White As Their Masters’: Visualizing the Color Line.”

[archaeologicalnews]

Archaeologists dig for a colonial-era black school

Stop by the corner of Prince George and Boundary streets on almost any morning and you're likely to see the old brick walks busy with pedestrian traffic.

Curious tourists mix with sleepy students walking from their dorm at old Brown Hall to classes at the College of William and Mary.

Step back in time 250 years, however, and you would have seen about 30 black children ages 3 to 10 lining up for a day of instruction in reading, writing, religion and deportment.

Founded in 1760 by the college and an Anglo-American missionary group whose trustees included Benjamin Franklin, the pioneering Bray School touched the lives of several hundred young blacks over its 14 years, helping give Williamsburg a population of slaves and freemen who were unusually literate. Read more.

[lyalljbcw027-blog]

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly (Dear America)

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly (Dear America) Joyce Hansen's Coretta Scott King Honor Book I THOUGHT MY SOUL WOULD RISE AND FLY is now back in print with a gorgeous new package!Patsy, an orphaned slave with a bad leg and a quiet nature, is considered slow by the Davis family. But Patsy's smart -- smart enough to learn to read and write on the sly. After the Civil War ends and slavery is abolished, Patsy believes Master Davis's promise to pay the former house slaves and to educate the slave children. But when the master ignores his promise to establish a school and the Freedmen's Bureau cannot provide a teacher, Patsy steps in to teach the students to read and write.Patsy's diary is filled with courage, conviction, and hope as she strives toward her freedom.