Figure 2

Citation

Myron H. Kimball (New York). “White and Black Slaves.” 1863. Greg French Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/141. Accessed 18 May 2024.

Title

White and Black Slaves

Subject

White and Black Slaves

Creator

Myron H. Kimball (New York)

Date

1863

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 2

Rights Holder

Greg French Collection

Original Format

carte de visite, albumen print

Factual Commentary

The caption to this image, “White and Black Slaves from New Orleans,” is designed to shock the (mostly white) viewers of such portraits with the realization that skin color was no obvious marker of who counted as a slave — after generations of masters forcing themselves upon enslaved women. This portrait seeks both to arouse moral outrage and prey upon the sympathy of a white audience that would identify with the “white” slave in the image. The back of the image explains that proceeds of the sale of such photographs “will be devoted exclusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf,” the region of the Confederacy around New Orleans occupied by the Union army.