(SLAVERY ABOLITION) Carte de visite portrait of Sojourner T

Sale 2631 - Lot 61

Price Realized: $ 9,375

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

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Carte-de-visite portrait of Sojourner Truth: "I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance." Albumen photograph, 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches, on original printed mount with caption on recto and her copyright imprint on verso; minimal wear. Michigan, copyright 1864

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Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery in 1826 and became one of the most influential orators of the abolitionist movement. She produced and copyrighted a series of carte-de-visite portraits in various poses to support her work--and to maintain control over her image. This seems to have been her favorite portrait, as it appears on a variety of different mounts and was used as the basis for the engraved frontispiece of her 1875 autobiography. Another example with this exact mount was sold at an 1870 lecture--see Grigsby, Enduring Truths: Sojourner's Shadows and Substance, pages 43, 73-76, images 52a (with this exact mount), and images 53-56 (with slightly different mounts).