Wilson Chinn

Last updated
Wilson Chinn
Wilson Chinn.jpg
Chinn, the famous "branded slave" photo
Known forSubject of photos demonstrating instruments of torture, widely circulated during the American Civil War

Wilson Chinn (fl. 1863) was an escaped American slave from Louisiana who became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive use of torture received in slavery. The "branded slave" photograph of Chinn with "VBM" (the initials of his owner, Volsey B. Marmillion) branded on his forehead, wearing a punishment collar, and posing with other equipment used to punish slaves became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War and remains one of the most famous photos of that era.

Contents

The New York Times writer Joan Paulson Gage, noted in 2013 that "The images of Wilson Chinn in chains, like the one of Gordon and his scarred back, are as disturbing today as they were in 1863. They serve as two of the earliest and most dramatic examples of how the newborn medium of photography could change the course of history." [1]

Wilson Chinn with branding on forehead.jpg

Appearance in Harper's Weekly

Abolitionist, civil rights activist, and Union colonel George H. Hanks sent photographs with descriptions of emancipated child slaves and Chinn in a letter to George William Curtis, then editor of Harper's Weekly, [2] the most widely read journal during the Civil War, which appeared in the January 1864 article "Emancipated Slaves White and Colored": [3]

The group of emancipated slaves whose portraits I send you were brought by Colonel Hanks and Mr. Phillip Bacon from New Orleans, where they were set free by General Butler. Mr. Bacon went to New Orleans with our army, and was for eighteen months employed as Assistant-Superintendent of Freedmen, under the care of Colonel Hanks. He established the first school in Louisiana for emancipated slaves, and these children were among his pupils. He will soon return to Louisiana to resume his labor.

...

Wilson Chinn is about 60 years old. He was ‘raised’ by Isaac Howard of Woodford Country, Kentucky. When 21 years old he was taken down the river and sold to Volsey B. Marmillion, a sugar planter about 45 miles above New Orleans. This man was accustomed to brand his negroes, and Wilson has on his forehead the letters ‘V.B.M.’ Of the 210 slaves on this plantation 105 left at one time and came into the Union camp. Thirty of them had been branded like cattle with a hot iron, four of them on the forehead, and the others on the breast or arm.

Colonel George Hanks
Harper's weekly (1864) (14598266348) Harper's weekly (1864) (14598266348).jpg
Harper's weekly (1864) (14598266348)
Wilson Chinn and the other former slaves he traveled with. According to the Harper's Weekly article, they were, "'perfectly white;' 'very fair;' 'of unmixed white race.' Their light complexions contrasted sharply with those of the three adults, Wilson, Mary, and Robert; and that of the fifth child, Isaac--'a black boy of eight years; but nonetheless [more] intelligent than his whiter companions Wiilson chinn and the other former slaves he traveled with.jpg
Wilson Chinn and the other former slaves he traveled with. According to the Harper's Weekly article, they were, "'perfectly white;' 'very fair;' 'of unmixed white race.' Their light complexions contrasted sharply with those of the three adults, Wilson, Mary, and Robert; and that of the fifth child, Isaac—'a black boy of eight years; but nonetheless [more] intelligent than his whiter companions

The former slaves, including Chinn, traveled from New Orleans to the North. The group was accompanied by Colonel Hanks from the 18th Infantry Regiment. They posed for photos in New York City and in Philadelphia. The resulting images were produced in the carte de visite format and were sold for twenty-five cents each, with the profits of the sale being directed to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks back in Louisiana to support education of freedmen. Each of the photos noted that sale proceeds would be "devoted to the education of colored people". Most of these were produced by Charles Paxson and Myron Kimball, who took the group photo that later appeared as a woodcut in Harper's Weekly .

This helped fan the anti-slavery cause and promote the sale of abolitionist photographs. [4]

Apparently white slave children

Of these, four children appeared to be white or octoroon. Hank's letter in Harper's Weekly described them as "perfectly white", "very fair", "of unmixed white race", which contrasted them with the three adults, Wilson, Mary, and Robert and the fifth child, Isaac—"a black boy of eight years; but none the less intelligent than his whiter companions."

Harper's Weekly description of them "as white, as intelligent, as docile as most of our own children" has been identified as propaganda to win the support of Northerners. [5]

Modern displays of branded slave image

In the 21st century, the Paxson No. 8 "branded slave" image of Chinn [6] has appeared on display at:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emancipation Proclamation</span> 1862 executive order by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln freeing slaves in the South

The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation had the effect of changing the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as slaves escaped the control of their enslavers, either by fleeing to Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, they were permanently free. In addition, the Proclamation allowed for former slaves to "be received into the armed service of the United States". The Emancipation Proclamation played a significant part in the end of slavery in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism</span> Movement to end slavery

Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved people around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Clay</span> American politician (1777–1852)

Henry Clay Sr. was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and Democrat John C. Calhoun.

<i>Harpers Weekly</i> American political magazine

Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, alongside illustrations. It carried extensive coverage of the American Civil War, including many illustrations of events from the war. During its most influential period, it was the forum of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Underground Railroad Freedom Center</span> Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a museum in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, based on the history of the Underground Railroad. Opened in 2004, the center also pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photographers of the American Civil War</span>

The American Civil War was the most widely covered conflict of the 19th century. The images would provide posterity with a comprehensive visual record of the war and its leading figures, and make a powerful impression on the populace. Something not generally known by the public is the fact that roughly 70% of the war's documentary photography was captured by the twin lenses of a stereo camera. The American Civil War was the first war in history whose intimate reality would be brought home to the public, not only in newspaper depictions, album cards and cartes-de-visite, but in a popular new 3D format called a "stereograph," "stereocard" or "stereoview." Millions of these cards were produced and purchased by a public eager to experience the nature of warfare in a whole new way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free people of color</span> Persons of partial African and European descent who were not enslaved

In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who were primarily of black African descent with little mixture. They were a distinct group of free people of color in the French colonies, including Louisiana and in settlements on Caribbean islands, such as Saint-Domingue (Haiti), St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. In these territories and major cities, particularly New Orleans, and those cities held by the Spanish, a substantial third class of primarily mixed-race, free people developed. These colonial societies classified mixed-race people in a variety of ways, generally related to visible features and to the proportion of African ancestry. Racial classifications were numerous in Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Negro</span> Emancipated people of color

In the British colonies in North America and in the United States before the abolition of slavery in 1865, free Negro or free Black described the legal status of African Americans who were not enslaved. The term was applied both to formerly enslaved people (freedmen) and to those who had been born free, whether of African or mixed descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Scott Withers</span> American historian

Alexander Scott Withers was a Virginia slave owner, lawyer, planter, magistrate, teacher and delegate to the First Wheeling Convention (1861) establishing the state of West Virginia. He is celebrated as the author of Chronicles of Border Warfare (1831), a history of the early white settlement of western Virginia and consequent conflicts with American Indians. He sold two of the children he fathered with a slave to slave traders further South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmonson sisters</span> 19th-century African-American abolitionists

Mary Edmonson (1832–1853) and Emily Edmonson, "two respectable young women of light complexion", were African Americans who became celebrities in the United States abolitionist movement after gaining their freedom from slavery. On April 15, 1848, they were among the 77 slaves who tried to escape from Washington, DC on the schooner The Pearl to sail up the Chesapeake Bay to freedom in New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education during the slave period in the United States</span>

During the era of slavery in the United States, the education of enslaved African Americans, except for religious instruction, was discouraged, and eventually made illegal in most of the Southern states. After 1831, the prohibition was extended in some states to free blacks as well. Even if educating Blacks was legal, they still had little access to education, in the North as well as the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maine in the American Civil War</span> Union state in the American Civil War

As a fervently abolitionist and strongly Republican state, Maine contributed a higher proportion of its citizens to the Union armies than any other, as well as supplying money, equipment and stores. No land battles were fought in Maine. The only episode was the Battle of Portland Harbor (1863) that saw a Confederate raiding party thwarted in its attempt to capture a revenue cutter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War</span> Summary from 1607 to 1861

This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White slave propaganda</span> American abolitionist propaganda using white-looking slaves

White slave propaganda was a kind of publicity, especially photograph and woodcuts, and also novels, articles, and popular lectures, about biracial and white majority slaves. Their examples were used during and prior to the American Civil War to further the abolitionist cause and to raise money for the education of former slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abolitionism in the United States</span> Movement to end slavery in the United States

In the United States, abolitionism, the movement that sought to end slavery in the country, was active from the late colonial era until the American Civil War, the end of which brought about the abolition of American slavery, except as punishment for a crime, through the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter (enslaved man)</span> America "contraband" photographed 1863

Peter or Gordon, or "Whipped Peter", or "Poor Peter" was a self-emancipated, formerly enslaved man who was the subject of photographs documenting the extensive scarring of his back from whippings received in slavery. The "scourged back" photo became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War and remains one of the most notable photos of the 19th-century United States.

Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick are American photographers from New Orleans, Louisiana. Calhoun moved to Los Angeles during his teenage years, where he attended Los Angeles Community College, working at KCET public radio station before returning to New Orleans to open a portrait studio.

George H. Hanks was an abolitionist and civil rights activist and colonel in the US Civil War.

Myron Holly Kimball (1827-1912) was an American photographer, real estate speculator, and collector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John R. White</span> American slave trader (~1799–1872)

John Rucker White was a plantation owner, farmer, and interstate slave trader working out of the U.S. state of Missouri in the 25 years prior to the American Civil War.

References

  1. Paulson Gage, Joan (August 5, 2013). "Icons of Cruelty". The New York Times.
  2. "Harper's Weekly | Thomas Nast: Prince of Caricaturists".
  3. Coates, Ta-Nehisi (2010-04-14). "Honoring CHM: One Drop" . The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2023-06-01.
  4. Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T.; Coles, David J. (2002). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 931. ISBN   978-0393047585.
  5. "'White' slave children of New Orleans". New York Daily News. September 21, 2012. Archived from the original on 2023-04-06.
  6. "Charles Paxson | Wilson, Branded Slave from New Orleans". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 1 October 2023.

Further reading