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Figure 9

Citation

Myron H. Kimball (New York). “Rebecca: A Slave Girl from New Orleans.” 1863. Joan Gage Collection. Mirror of Race, 11 Feb. 2021, mirrorofrace.bc.edu/items/show/148. Accessed 18 May 2024.

Title

Rebecca: A Slave Girl from New Orleans

Subject

Rebecca: A Slave Girl from New Orleans

Creator

Myron H. Kimball (New York)

Date

1863

Type

Studio Portrait

Identifier

Figure 9

Rights Holder

Joan Gage Collection

Original Format

carte de visite, albumen print

Factual Commentary

Rebecca Huger seems to have been a favorite with the photographer. Certainly she is pretty, and she also could easily have passed for white. She is also on the verge of becoming a young woman, and probably something the photographer sought to provoke for the viewer is the fate such a young woman might meet at the hands of an owner for whom an enslaved woman’s body was property to use in any way he saw fit — which would account also for the very existence of “white” slaves such as Rebecca in the first place. The publicity campaign used these photographs to uphold support for a war to end such practices.