African Americana

2 1/8 x 3 1/4 in. CDV on cardstock mount believe to be a period albumen copy (upper edge trimmed, small dampstain to lower left, abrasion to lower right mount). Pencil inscription to verso: "A Slave of Baton Rouge Louisiana whipped for a trifling offense. J.H. Prater phot. Augusta, Mich."

CDV showing the back and profile of a young enslaved African American male who was bull-whipped after being captured while trying to escape, which left his back horribly scarred. Uncredited but known to be taken by McPherson & Oliver, Baton Rouge, LA, April 1863. Known only as Gordon, he made it across Union lines in 1863, and Northern abolitionists had this photograph taken and distributed to publicize the horrors of slavery. When this image was reproduced in Harper's, it bore the caption "Gordon Under Medical Inspection."

James H. Prater, inscribed on the verso in contemporary pencil, was a Michigan farmer who became a photographer by 1862 in southwest Michigan in Paw Paw, Ross, and Climax. He was known to operate out of Augusta, MI from 1862-1874. (Tinder, David V. Directory of Early Michigan Photographers, p. 10, 2018).