Hidden Witness
Subtitle: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: St Martins Pr
Published: January 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 191
ISBN-13: 9780312245467
Subjects: American history: c 1800 to c 1900; American history: from c 1900 -; Photographs: portraits; Slavery & emancipation; 20th century; c 1800 to c 1900; Black American Sociology; Documentary Photo Collections; Social Science; Photo Essays; USA; Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General; 19th century; African Americans; History; Portrait photography; Portraits; Slaves; United States
Description: "Although photography was introduced to this country in 1840, precious few images of African-Americans from that era survive today. Even after the Civil War there were not many African-American photographers, and very few black people had the time, money, or freedom for a portrait sitting. Jackie Napolean Wilson, whose own grandfather was born a slave in South Carolina between 1853 and 1855, has assembled the most comprehensive and significant collection of such images ever brought together in one place.

The concrete reality reflected in daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes presents these men and women in situations and attire that bring the truth of their daily lives much closer to us. Such scenes of material affection, matrimony, friendship, war, and the grim reality of the master/slave relationship help focus our perception of the African-American experience in America in ways not otherwise available to the modern reader.

Among these images is the only picture of Abraham Lincoln in the company of an African-American and the earliest-known daguerreotype of Frederick Douglass (circa 1843)."--BOOK JACKET.