Rosa, Charley, Rebecca, slave children from New Orleans / Chas. Paxson, photographer, N.Y.
Photographer: Charles Paxson. Date of Creation: c1864
Photograph shows freed slaves, Rosina Downs, Charley Taylor, and Rebecca Huger, each wrapped in a portion of the U.S. flag.
Citation: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
The Young White Faces of Slavery
BY MARY NIALL MITCHELL, NY Times Paraphrase Summary
The young "white" slaves' resemblance to the magazine's white middle-class readership's children—Northern kids who were, at least in their parents' minds, far from the prospect of slavery—was no accident. The sponsors of the New Orleans-based group knew just what kind of impact such kids might have on middle-class readers in the North. The Harper's Weekly editors claimed that because they are "the offspring of white fathers through two or three generations," "they are as white, as intelligent, as docile, as most of our own children."
The Civil War was viewed by historians for a long time as a "rich man's war" fought by the poorest citizens and as a bloodbath for four million slaves against whom few white laborers wanted to compete. This view was violently reflected in the New York Draft Riots of 1863. However, the propaganda effort focused on the New Orleans group that was started by abolitionists and the Union military in the wake of the riots in New York has received less political support.
Before the turn of the 20th century, it was one of the most cutting-edge attempts at public persuasion that had ever been made. The sponsors of the former slaves from New Orleans sought to reawaken a personal connection among white Northerners to the fight against slavery through the new "truth-telling" technique of photography and extremely sophisticated human pleas.
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Citation: The Young White Faces of Slavery, New York Times, January 30th, 2014