Mary Johnson, White and black slaves from New Orleans
Photographer: M.H. Kimball. Date Created: c1863.
Photograph shows a group portrait of Isaac White and Augusta Broujey with a woman, possibly freed slave Mary Johnson.
"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. Banks" printed on back of the mount. "LE380" written in pencil on back of the mount.
Citation: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Enslaved Children of New Orleans, 1863
To earn money for the education of freed slaves in New Orleans, photographs of emancipated kids were sold. The kids in this picture brought to light the idea that slavery was not just an issue of race. A child was also an enslaved person if his or her mother was one.
On January 30, 1864, the following article was published in Harper's Weekly. The article's brief biographies give us a unique (and maybe unusual) glimpse into the lives of youngsters who were held as slaves.
THE HARPER'S WEEKLY ARTICLE, JANUARY 30, 1864, TRANSCRIPT
The group of freed slaves whose pictures I'm sending you were transported from New Orleans, where General Butler had freed them, by Colonel Hanks and Mr. Phillip Bacon. Mr. Bacon traveled to New Orleans with our army and worked under Colonel Hanks' supervision for eighteen months as Assistant-Superintendent of Freedmen. These kids were among his students at the first school he founded in Louisiana for liberated slaves. He'll be going back to Louisiana soon to continue working.
Mary Johnson was cook in her master’s family in New Orleans. On her left arm are scars of three cuts given to her by her mistress with a rawhide. On her back are scars of more than fifty cuts given by her master. The occasion was that one morning she was half an hour behind time in bringing up his five o’clock cup of coffee. As the Union army approached she ran away from her master, and has since been employed by Colonel Hanks as cook.