Wrapped in the Flag
SOLD October 2013 |
CDV-format albumen print of three light-skinned slave children protectively wrapped in stars-and-stripes sheets symbolizing the US flag. Imprinted front "Our Protection / Rosa, Charley, Rebecca / Slave Children from New Orleans" and on reverse "No. 9. Entered according to an act of Congress. In the year 1864, by S. Tackaberry, in the Clerk's Office of the U. S. for the Southern District of New-York. / The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of colored people in the department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen. Banks. / Chas. Paxson, Photographer, N. Y. / N. B. -- All orders must be addressed to H. N. Bent, No. 1 Mercer Street, N.Y."
Anti-slavery literature before the Civil War included among its themes the fate of the mixed-blood offspring of slaves and their owners. That these, the slave holder's own offspring, often continued in slavery and could be sold to settle debts by the owners creditors or heirs was taken to highlight the corrupting nature of the slave system. Readers of contemporary literature would have been aware that the protection afforded these children by the Union flag was one against chains and the lash.
Some fading and bends.
