1 10 101 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/31e2d28cac73c6b07c67abc43205a0cf.tif 1b4087648cf46ca4a6000b8e214733de Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This photograph depicts two young African American men in rags. They are almost certainly “contrabands,” a name given to enslaved people who escaped from their masters once the Civil War broke out and sought refuge with the Union forces in Confederate territory. It is likely that they were photographed by an itinerant photographer at a Union army camp. Someone (almost certainly the person who purchased this image) has written on the mat in pencil: “All men are created equal” ― quoting in part perhaps the most famous line from the Declaration of Independence, namely that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” On the back of card (see an enlarged illustration below), the same person goes on to write: “This is not exagerated [sic] in the least - : not one out of ten of the niggers here, who have run away from their masters (and there are thousands of them) can boast of such good clothes. Shove them into the army, I say, and let them do the fighting in this hot Department.” Given the mention “this hot Department,” which means an occupied territory of the Confederacy where considerable combat was still taking place, it was probably a solder who bought this photograph from a camp sutler (a merchant who would travel with an army to sell goods to the soldiers). He seems to have then sent it by mail, with the message inscribed on the photograph, to a friend or family member. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary This image captures two faces of white America’s relationship to race. Literally on the face, the front, of the image the writer has given the photograph his own caption: “All men are created equal.” This seems to be an expression of America’s highest ideals of equality and justice: even these to young men ― forced to live in slavery, reduced to wearing rags ― deserve to share in the equality owed by right to “all men.” The expression seem to validate the Union cause in the Civil War as a fight for those ideals: to uphold universal equality and to end the injustice of slavery. And yet, on the hidden face of the image, its back, its underside, the writer seems to speak his mind more freely. He call the escaped slaves “niggers” and seems to despise them for their condition, almost as if he were contaminated by how many of them (“thousands”) were flooding the area of Union army control. Still, despite the evident contempt, there is perhaps a ray of hope. Many whites resisted giving black men the right to fight in the war. To allow them to fight as soldiers would be to grant them an equal status to the white men as men who were up to the responsibility of facing death to preserve their liberty. Despite the coarse, even crude language this writer uses, and despite his willingness to see African Americans put in harm’s way, at least he accepts that they should have the opportunity to fight, to exchange the rags for a soldier’s uniform, and thereby to share in a common cause. Perhaps without fully realizing it, he was accepting the position of abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass that African Americans must be given the opportunity to prove themselves ready to face death to live free and to fight for the freedom of others. For a discussion of African American soldiers in the Civil War, see Erina Duganne’s essay on this site, “Black Civil War Portraiture in Context.” For portraits of black men who did get that chance to serve as soldiers in the Civil War, see this one of an anonymous private in the famed 54th Massachusetts and this one of James Trotter, a former slave who rose to officer rank and went went on to become a civil servant and author. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure032 Title A name given to the resource "All men are created equal" Subject The topic of the resource unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1863 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait (probably itinerant setting), commercial Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/86588c306997cf708285dd8e9d4119ab.jpg 045b4fb735f5c052b93e30f3538eb89e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slaves in Black and White Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Slaves in Black and White Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite, albumen print Factual Commentary Factual Commentary Photographer Charles Paxson has posed Rebecca Huger before the same huge flag as in the previous image. She crosses here arms in an almost prayerful gesture that indicates both love and a sense of protection. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure 7 Title A name given to the resource "Oh! How I Love the Old Flag." Subject The topic of the resource "Oh! How I Love the Old Flag." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Paxson (New York) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1864 Type The nature or genre of the resource Studio Portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Joan Gage Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/d6818c8ab57e03ac3e4ad806d3234d26.tif a1c822862ec4428181c8890810e26af4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary This photograph is another in the series of former slaves from the New Orleans area who obtained freedom during the Civil War and participated in one of the first photographic publicity campaigns to support a cause ― in this case, the Union and schools for former slaves. The caption on the front of the card reads: “Learning is Wealth. Wilson, Charley, Rebecca & Rosa. Slaves from New Orleans.” Printed on reverse: “No. 6. / Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by S. Tackaberry, in the Clerk’s Office, of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. / The nett 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. / Chas. Paxson, Photographer, New York. / N. B. ― All orders must be addressed to H. N. Bent, No. 1 Mercer Street, New York.” Wilson is Wilson Chinn, who appears in another image in this exhibition displaying the chains and implements of punishment used on slaves. For more images in this series of photographs of former slaves, see here. Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary Of all the photographs in the series of former slaves from New Orleans, this is the one that indicates most directly a key goal of the publicity campaign: to provide education for these former slaves. The children gather around Charley, as if in a family. Little Rosa seems exhausted and fed up with must have been a very long day in the photographer’s studio. Although this image might seem innocuous to a modern viewer, it must be remembered that teaching a slave to read was a crime in the slave states. It was understood that literacy was an essential step on the path to liberation and autonomy, which was either a hope or a threat, depending on whether one’s aim was liberty or preserving the domination of the masters. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure085 Title A name given to the resource “Learning is Wealth" Subject The topic of the resource unknown Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Charles Paxson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1864 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/6e8e16ce950bab278aa1c1c41eb63b9f.pdf e227f00b8f441782b3ceb7571f04bceb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Critical Analysis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “Pure Race” Africans and Ethnic Diversity in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro Subject The topic of the resource “Pure Race” Africans and Ethnic Diversity in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Flavio dos Santos Gomes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 8, 2012 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/b2b81750a225e4eebf85943015ef6878.jpg 08470e64f146c9028ea990692613e96a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mirror of Race Subject The topic of the resource Mirror of Race Main Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data carte de visite: albumen print Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image cdv standard Factual Commentary Factual Commentary The penned inscription on this photograph reads “Tonquaways of Texas,” and it dates from around 1865. The two men, at this point unidentified, each pose with a bow and a single arrow. They wear a combination of tribal and Western clothing. “Tonquaway” is a 19th spelling for the Tonkawa tribe, which once roamed the region that is now Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. In 1884, the US government forcibly gathered and relocated the Tonkawas, finally settling them in Oakland, Oklahoma in 1885. That this image identifies the two men as “Tonquaways of Texas” is further evidence, apart from the photographic style of the print and mounting, that this image dates from a time before their expulsion from Texas. The Tonkawa have endured, despite their version of the Trail of Tears. According to the official website of the Tonkawa tribe, the Waco (Wichita) name for the Tonkawa is “Tonkaweya,” which means “They All Stay Together,” and the Tonkawa’s own name for themselves is “Tickanwa•tic,” which means “Real People.” Interpretive Commentary Interpretive Commentary In the case of photographs of Native Americans from the 19th century, it is always worth asking if they have full agency in the representation of themselves in any given image. So, for example, in this photograph of the two Tonkawa men, we can ask: For whom was this image made? It is a carte de visite, which means it was printed from a glass plate negatives, and so many copies could have been made by the photographer. The fact that it bears the title “Tonquaways of Texas” indicates that the images was indeed printed for a clientele other than these two men, who would not need this label. As such, it was probably sold to white patrons of the photographer as a quasi-ethnographic souvenir. But even if that were the case, photographic images such as this, especially quite early ones, provide important and rare evidence about the lives and cultures of Native peoples. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure057 Title A name given to the resource “Tonquaways of Texas” Subject The topic of the resource unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1865 Type The nature or genre of the resource studio portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Greg French Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Photographer Photographer https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/3a725112ab774acbd851b59fae77d482.pdf 5aa9fb8b0097db782ff6a1da6e1c5362 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Critical Analysis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “True Pictures”: Frederick Douglass on the Promise of Photography Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gregory Fried https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/724f7f16f0ed741997c753b81f98cf47.pdf b2cc584e601cc2cc318cc38bac9fc8b6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Critical Analysis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Freakish Whiteness: The Circassian Lady and the Caucasian Fantasy Subject The topic of the resource A Freakish Whiteness: The Circassian Lady and the Caucasian Fantasy Description An account of the resource What is the mean­ing of mid-nineteenth-cen­tury por­traits of white women with strange names, exotic cos­tumes, and wildly frizzed hair? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gregory Fried Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 15, 2013 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/7d88c10e589242cc38924581e3ebacb9.pdf c3df88ae8efbaafd6b330fbdef3a0144 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Critical Analysis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Spirit Photograph Description An account of the resource An analy­sis of a “spirit pho­to­graph,” a form of pho­tog­ra­phy thought to bridge this world and the next. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shawn Michelle Smith Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 17, 2011 https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/860c715ef17d283fe1a82af08c2212b0.pdf 82569662b446f005c4dcba682b13d1f3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Critical Analysis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A White Slave Girl: “Mulatto Raised by Charles Sumner” Subject The topic of the resource A White Slave Girl: “Mulatto Raised by Charles Sumner” Description An account of the resource A nar­ra­tive of dis­cov­ery about one of the first pho­tographs used to pro­mote the abo­li­tion­ist cause. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Joan Gage Abstract A summary of the resource. A nar­ra­tive of dis­cov­ery about one of the first pho­tographs used to pro­mote the abo­li­tion­ist cause. https://mirrorofrace.bc.edu/files/original/62b6b67be8e491b4034ddd69300ae305.jpg 45beb16fa420ba5af1c9cde821932749 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Violence Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Exhibition Name Name of the exhibition in which the item appears Violence Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Ambrotype Factual Commentary Factual Commentary The man identified only as “Abraham, Slave Master” holds a whip clenched tightly in his fist. This is an “occupational” portrait, one where the sitter poses with an object symbolic of his profession. Abraham was probably a slave overseer, or perhaps a slave trader, not a more refined and aristocratic owner of a large and old-family plantation. But the whip is symbolic of more than the job of slave driver: it embodies the fear, the punishment, the pain, the violence that was necessary to enforce slavery’s structure of domination. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Figure 1 Title A name given to the resource Abraham, Slave Master Subject The topic of the resource Abraham, Slave Master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource late 1850s Type The nature or genre of the resource Studio Portrait Rights Holder A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource. Cowan’s Auctions, Inc., Cincinnati, OH Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource photographer Unknown Photographer Photographer