ESSAYS ON THE MIRROR OF RACE
To view a specific essay, click on its title; to learn more about an author, click on the author's name.
This essay explores the ideas of Frederick Douglass on the revolutionary significance of photography for the cause of abolishing slavery and for advancing human equality.
To view a specific essay, click on its title; to learn more about an author, click on the author's name.
Martin A. Berger, "White Suffering and the Branded Hand"
This essay analyzes the social and racial significance of an unusual mid-nineteenth-century daguerreotype of a white abolitionist's branded hand.
Gregory Fried, "'True
Pictures': Frederick Douglass on the Promise of Photography"This essay analyzes the social and racial significance of an unusual mid-nineteenth-century daguerreotype of a white abolitionist's branded hand.
This essay explores the ideas of Frederick Douglass on the revolutionary significance of photography for the cause of abolishing slavery and for advancing human equality.
Joan Gage, "A White Slave Girl: 'Mulato Raised by Charles Sumner'"
A narrative of discovery about one of the first photographs used to promote the abolitionist cause.
A narrative of discovery about one of the first photographs used to promote the abolitionist cause.
, "'As
White as Their Masters': Visualizing the Color Line"
A discussion of the ambiguity of the color line in 19th century visual representations of race.
A discussion of the ambiguity of the color line in 19th century visual representations of race.
, "A Spirit Photograph"
An analysis of the use of portraits of whites and a Native American to construct a "spirit photograph," a form of photography popular in the latter 19th century as a way of supposedly bridging this world and the next.
An analysis of the use of portraits of whites and a Native American to construct a "spirit photograph," a form of photography popular in the latter 19th century as a way of supposedly bridging this world and the next.
Other essays to come shortly.
