CDV: social propaganda FREED SLAVE CHILDREN # 1

An abolitionist carte-de-visite portrait of a child identified by a printed caption in the lower margin as ‘Freed Slave Children’. The point of the portrait is that the child appears, to all intents and purposes, to be white. However, under the system which obtained in the Southern states, many white people believed that any trace of African ancestry defined a person as black.

Great Britain almost entered the war on the side of the Confederates, due largely to the economic links between the South and Britain’s cotton manufacturing industry. This carte would have been produced by British abolitionists as part of a campaign of social propaganda to persuade the British public of the iniquities of slavery, the idea being that any right-minded Englishman would have been shocked at the thought of such pale-skinned children being treated as slaves.

A printed caption on the reverse of the mount includes the information that ‘The Nett Proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be donated to the education of these and other Freed Children in America.’

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company.

Condition: please see scans. The print shows some small, faint marks in the white void surrounding the image but is otherwise in excellent condition. The mount presents a very small amount of foxing but is clean and firm, with crisp edges and sharp corners.