Slave daguerreotypes by Louis Agassiz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Jack (driver), Guinea. Plantation of BF Taylor Esq., Columbia, SC "

The slave daguerreotypes by Louis Agassiz are a series of daguerreotypes , which in 1850 commissioned by Louis Agassiz , naturalist and professor of the University of Harvard , have been made. They should document the physiological differences between Africans and Europeans and, derived from them, provide arguments for the superiority of the white race. These are 15 silver plates that were discovered in 1977 in the holdings of the Peabody Museum of Archeology & Ethnology at Harvard and that, due to their technical quality, were presented in the 1992 exhibition "Nineteenth-Century Photography" at the Amon Carter Museum . These plates are the earliest daguerreotypes of African American slaves and thus an important document of the social system before the American Civil War .

Context of the recordings

In order to prove his racist theories, Agassiz was looking for "pure" Africans, which initially proved difficult, since the import of African slaves into the United States was prohibited from January 1, 1808 ( Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves (1807) ). The American paleontologist Robert W. Gibbes, who himself came from South Carolina , suggested that he visit the plantations in the Columbia area. Since around 6,000 "whites" lived in Columbia around 1850 and over 100,000 slaves, the treatment of these slaves was extremely repressive.

During a tour of the plantations around Columbia, Agassiz selected the slaves from whom daguerreotypes were to be made. Gibbes noted: "Agassiz was delighted with his investigation of the Ebo, Foulah, Gullah, Guinea, Coromantee, Mandrigo and Congo Negroes." As soon as Agassiz left, Gibbes took these people to the daguerreographer Joseph T. Zealy, who made the recordings. Gibbes carefully documented the slave's names, family ties, African origins and owners. Then he sent the plates to the client and they ended up in the Museum of Comparative Zoology , from where they were handed over to the Peabody Museum in 1935.

description

A group of daguerreotypes show the whole, naked body in front, side and back views. This is how Alfred, a Foulah , and Jem, a Gullah , were photographed. The second group of daguerreotypes are close-ups of the head and torso of each person. This is how the driver Jack (Guinea) and his American-born daughter Drana were photographed, Renty (Congo) and his American-born daughter Delia, as well as the carpenter Fassena, a Mandingo .

Unlike contemporary daguerreotypes, they are not portraits ; the people were reduced to being typical representatives of their ethnic group . Therefore, Zealy renounced everything that could have expressed individuality: accessories, clothing, gestures.

reception

The works of Carrie Mae Weems , From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried , are a photo-artistic examination of the slave daguerreotypes. Weems photographed the plates and processed them in several steps in order to give the sitters back their individuality and to question the pseudo-objectivity of the daguerreotypist.

Litigation

“Renty, Congo. Plantation by BF Taylor, Esq. "

In a Massachusetts state civil court , Tamara Lanier sued Harvard University on March 20, 2019 for releasing the daguerreotypes of her ancestors, the slave Renty and his daughter Drana, to the descendants of the people who were photographed against their will. When the daguerreotypes were discovered in the 1970s, it was considered to identify possible descendants of the photographed slaves; Harvard took no steps in that direction. In the summer of 2019, 53 direct descendants of Harvard professor Agassiz published a statement in support of the publication of the photos.

Lanier's research found Renty was around 65 when the picture was taken and lived on Benjamin Franklin Taylor's cotton plantation. Presumably around 1800, around 15 years old, he came to New Orleans on a Spanish slave ship and from there to South Carolina in the slave trade. As an African-born slave was unusual in his day, Renty was nicknamed "the black African" and was a respected figure among the slaves on Taylor's plantation, as he could read aloud and lead services that the slaves celebrated for themselves alongside them that they had to visit on behalf of their masters.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from: Brian Wallis: Black Bodies, White Science , 1995, p. 48.
  2. ↑ Quoted from: Brian Wallis: Black Bodies, White Science , 1995, p. 45.
  3. ^ Brian Wallis: Black Bodies, White Science , 1995, pp. 45 f.
  4. ↑ From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried. In: MoMA. Accessed July 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Brian Wallis: Black Bodies, White Science , 1995, p. 39.
  6. ↑ Lawsuit accuses Harvard of Profiting From Images of slaves. In: Observer. March 23, 2019, accessed on July 11, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The descendants of slaves want Harvard to stop using iconic photos of their relatives. In: CNN. March 21, 2019, accessed on July 11, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Harvard professor in 1800s had photos taken of slaves. Now his family wants the school to give the images to their descendants. June 20, 2019, accessed July 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Who was Renty? The story of the slave whose racist photos have triggered a lawsuit against Harvard. In: USA Today. March 22, 2019, accessed July 11, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Agassiz Zealy slave portraits  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Brian Wallis: Black Bodies, White Science: Louis Agassiz's Slave Daguerreotypes . In: American Art, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 38-61. ( PDF ; 7.6 MB, English)
  • Molly Rogers, David W. Blight: Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-century America , Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2010.