(RECONSTRUCTION) Catto Octavius Carte de visite photograph

Sale 2068 - Lot 56

Price Realized: $ 5,980

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800

(RECONSTRUCTION.) Catto, Octavius. Carte-de-visite photograph. Caption reads "Octavius Catto. Assassinated Philadelphia Oct. 10, 1871. One more Martyr to the cause of Constitutional Liberty."; some very minor wear. Np, 1871

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Octavius V. Catto (1839-1871) was born in Charleston S.C. to a free black minister who brought his family to Philadelphia while Octavius was still a child. There, he acquired a college-level education and began to take a serious interest in the cause of voting rights. Catto began to work with the Republican party just prior to the Civil War and helped raise a company of black troops for that effort. While working on behalf of the Republican candidate in a local election in 1873, Frank Kelly, a white fireman who was working for the Democratic party, shot Catto dead. Though later tried for murder, Kelly was found innocent.