Mar 10, 2011 - Sale 2239

Sale 2239 - Lot 346

Price Realized: $ 450
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 350 - $ 500
(MILITARY--CONTRABANDS.) GIBSON, JAMES F., UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MATTHEW BRADY. A Group of contrabands. Albumen stereo-view, 3.5x7 inches, mounted on a card. 1862, but printed later, circa 1870s--80s

Additional Details

A classic image of the newly freed slaves known as "contrabands." The term arose when the Union forces under General Butler first took possession of the plantations on the out islands and along the coast of South Carolina, thus freeing thousands of slaves. What was to be done with them, and whose responsibility were they? The government in Washington declared them to be "contraband of war," the traditional definition of captured goods. The term was picked up by the press and almost overnight "contrabands" became the subject of all sorts of caricatures, cartoons, etc.