A stunning teen-ager, possibly in a white wedding gown, from Great Bend, Kansas
Black teamsters at Cobb Hill, VA
Rev John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868)
The long struggle from slavery to citizenship is kept alive between 1607 and 1865 by the beacon of emancipation, announced by Lincoln on January 1, 1863 and written into the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which is ratified on December 6, 1865.
Uncle Tom's cabin actors
Standing Woman
School segregation with little black girl sitting apart - to the left
Racial Stereotyping - Minstrel Shows
Woman with African headdress
A stately woman in traditional African garb
Woman in traditional dress
A woman standing in a checkered dress
Emancipation
Born a slave of a Samuel Wilson in Londonderry, NH, married to a man named Stewart, three children (Isaiah, Salona, & George), freed around 1815, then a servant to Mr. William Duncan in Candia, NH before returning to Londonderry in 1835, member of Methodist Church, reportedly “full of vim with a remarkably retentive memory,” Governor Frederick Smyth (1867-68) arranges the photograph of her taken at his office in Manchester by A. W. Kimball.
Dr. Alexander Augusta (1825-1890)
White society missed no opportunities to stereotype blacks, both during and after slavery – including what became known as “minstrel shows.” In these stage events, whites put on “blackfaces” using make-up, and execute routines typically intended to ridicule blacks as “dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, happy-go-lucky, promiscuous, liquored-up and worse.”
George Fitzhugh (1806-1881)
Becomes the leading minstrel show actor with his racist portrayal of the slave “Jump Jim Crow.”
An elegantly dressed young woman, photographed in Jefferson City, Missouri
Oberlin College graduates
Jumping Jim Crow
Military
Racial Stereotyping - Cartoons
A seated woman, staring intently to her left
Attack on abolitionist Greeley
Lucy Thompson Gause (1842-1925)
African-Americans
Married to a Confederate soldier killed at Fredricksburg, she claims to have joined the 18th North Carolina regiment disguised as a man under the name Bill Thompson. She appears to be a light skinned African-American in this and other photos.
Flora Stewart -- 117 years old
Blackface
Racist Flyer
Flyer for W&J Stuart Studio in London featuring a racial putdown of a black man saying “dey’s gwine ter took my Po’tryt”
Blackface Uncle Tom and Little Eliza
Minstrel shows also associated blacks with special affinity for music and dance. The blackface actor, Thomas Rice, became famous for his song and dance routine Jump Jim Crow. Other slur words – mammies, bucks, coons, and the like – achieved widespread repetition as a result of these popular “theatrical” performances.
Photography Book
Racial Stereotyping - Pro-Slavery Spokesmen
Unidentified Freed Black Women
A free black born in Virginia, his efforts to become a physician are rebuffed in America, so he earns his MD from the University of Toronto in 1856. In 1861 he offers his services to Lincoln and he becomes the first black surgeon in the Union Army. As a Major in 1863, he holds the highest rank among all blacks in service. Despite further racist attacks, Augusta leads the Freedman’s Hospital in DC and is promoted to Brevet Lt. Colonel before retiring. Later he teaches anatomy at the Howard University while continuing to be barred from membership in the American Medical Association.
7 women + 1 man dressed up
T. D. Rice - Jump Jim Crow
Young girl in lovely dress