African Americana

3 3/4 x 5 3/4 in. cabinet card on cardstock mount (light toning, wear and surface soiling to mount including small area of loss to lower edge). Autographed inscription on verso reads, "Lewis G Clark is the George Harris of uncle Tomes [sic] Cabin was born in KY in 18 and 15 age 73." Subject sits next to a spinning wheel, its distaff laden with flax.

RARE: No other examples of this image were located.

Lewis Garrard Clarke was born in to slavery in Kentucky, where he suffered separation from his family and torture at the hands of enslavers until he was in his early 20s. He escaped in 1841, successfully making his way up to Cleveland, Ohio and thence to Canada across Lake Erie. He spent some time in Oberlin, Ohio, where he met many abolitionists and reunited with his younger brother, Milton, who had also escaped to freedom. Clarke published his own narrative in 1845, and spoke about his experiences and the horrors of slavery along with other noted abolitionists including Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is believed that Clarke inspired a freedom-seeking character, George Harris, in Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.