A rare carte de visite of Rebecca Huger, formerly enslaved by her own father, the merchant, John M. Huger. She was enrolled in the first emancipated school for Blacks in 1863 and was selected with several other students to participate in a press tour of the New York and Philadelphia in 1864 to raise money for the newly liberated.
On the verso it reads: “The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the department of the Gulf, now under the command of Major General Banks.”
In her article on the commodification of patriotism in the Civil War, Jessica Cohen notes that these portraits “were sold to raise money for the first program of free public education for freed-people in the Department of the Gulf, based out of New Orleans. Charles Paxon’s portraits of the formerly enslaved Rosina Downs, Charles Taylor, and Rebecca Huger became especially famous. The images of these fair-skinned children were deliberately intended to raise the specter of ‘white slavery,’ elicit a deeper sympathy, and entice northern audiences to support abolition. In the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, these cards helped align the project of educating former slaves with the larger goals of the Union’s war effort, working to shape the meaning of patriotism. While not all northerners would have connected this cause with their own patriotism, those with more abolitionist leanings would certainly have seen the purchase of these cards as a way of feeling patriotic and doing patriotic work” (Cohen).
Cohen, J., “You Have No Flag Out Yet?” in Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 9, Issue 3, (September, 2019) p.398.
