Patriotic Abolitionist CDV

Our Protection [Abolitionist CDV]

[Paxson, Charles]

Notes: A powerful Civil War carte de visite (CDV) photograph published to raise funds for freed slaves in Union-occupied Louisiana and to generate Northern support for the war and abolition. This photograph is one of several taken by New York photographer Charles Paxson of three freed slave children, identified by the Library of Congress as Rosina Downs, Charles Taylor, and Rebecca Huger, each wrapped in a portion of a massive U.S. flag.

Another image of these same children appeared as an engraving in the January 30, 1864, issue of Harper's Weekly. The magazine's editors explained to their white Northern readers that "as the offspring of white fathers through two or three generations they are as white, as intelligent, as docile, as most of our own children.” The children were taken on a tour of the north, with CDVs sold as a fundraiser, as proclaimed on the verso (back) of the image: "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 Major General Banks. N.B.—All orders must be addressed to H.N. Bent, Station D, New York."

According to University of New Orleans history professor Mary Niall Mitchell, the tour and the CDVs had a second motive. "Their larger aim was to bolster white Northern support for the war and inspire sympathy for former slaves in the South. Indeed, the photographs appeared at a time when desertions, in the North and South, were frequent, and the population fatigued beyond measure. The photographic campaign was, it seems, a renewed call to arms" (New York Times, Jan. 30, 2014).

Albumen silver print, 2-3/16 by 3-5/16 inches on a thin cardstock mount with a ruled border and a letterpress caption.

Edition + Condition: This is an excellent example with very minor spotting to the image and the mount. There is a small circular glue stain from a removed sticker. There is a hand-cancelled two-cent U.S. Internal Revenue Proprietary stamp on the verso, dating this image to the Civil War when a tax on CDVs raised significant funds for the war effort.

Publication: New York: H. N. Bent, [1864].

Item No: #307490

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