?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(MILITARY.) PHOTOGRAPHY. Group of 6 carte-de-visite photographs of freed children. 2 of Fannie Casseopia Lawrence, standing and seated * 3 of Rebecca, Charlie and Rosa, standing and seated * and one of Wilson (Chinn), with Charlie, Rebecca and Rosa. All bear photographer's stamps on the reverse, but only four of the six bear the information that proceeds go to relief of freedmen and refugees. All are in good condition, but should be seen. New York, Boston and Hartford, circa 1863
These photographs were originally taken by agents of the Freedmen's Bureau to be sold as fundraisers for food, clothing and schools. The children, notable Fannie, and Charlie were quite light-skinned and were no doubt included to demonstrate the sexual abuse that many slave women were subjected to. In addition to the images of 'white-looking' children there were the likes of Wilson Chinn, whose forehead was branded with 'V.B.M' by his owner, or Mary Johnson the cook, whose arms were scarred from her mistress's habit of cutting her arms when she was angry---on her back 50 scars from her master's rawhide.
