The images themselves played a key part in allowing the men, women and children freedom - being distributed through the northern states as propaganda during the push for abolition, and employed by former slaves to showcase their new images.
More than 150 of the photographs feature in a new book, Envisioning Emancipation, which has been published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 on January 1.
On the road to freedom: An African American
soldier in Union uniform with wife and daughters between 1863 - the year
of the Emancipation Proclamation - and 1865
Changes: Photography was also used a propaganda
to show how former slaves could become respectable people. Left, a
studio portrait of an African American sailor taken between 1861 and
1865. Right, a self-liberated teenage woman with two Union soldiers in
1862
At work: Fugitive African Americans fording the
Rappahannock River in Virginia in 1862 - the year before the
Emancipation Proclamation
Most of the images, which reveal what freedom looked like for black Americans in the Civil War era, were taken between the 1850s and the 1930s.They have been collated by Dr. Deborah Willis, a professor at the department of photography and imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and Dr. Barbara Krauthamer, an assistant professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The women spent years searching museums and archives throughout the country in a bid to expand the photographic record that would allow readers to look at race and freedom in a new way.
'We wanted a range of images that showed the scope of the thinking about what freedom looked like,' Dr. Willis told the New York Times. 'We consciously looked for black photographers; we consciously looked for images of women, whose stories have often not been included.'
Respectable: A woman, Sarah McGill Russwurm, is
pictured next to her brother, Urias Africanus McGill, a merchant in
Liberia. They are pictured in 1854
Working together: A photograph from 1864 reads:
'Colored army teamsters, Cobb Hill, Va'. It is one of 150 pictures in a
new book about photography and Emancipation
Horrors: The authors also discovered
never-before-seen battle pictures. Here, men collect the bones of
soldiers killed in battle, Cold Harbor, Virginia in 1865
Forging on: Left, a soldier in Union uniform
between 1863-1865, Right, a formerly enslaved man holds a horn with
which slaves were called, near Marshall, Texas
And as they searched, they found numerous images challenging the ideas of slavery - 'images that have gone missing from the historical record,' Dr. Willis said.Alongside pictures of enslaved people on plantations, there were images of wealthy black families posing together, black Union soldiers, Emancipation Day celebrations and reunions between former slaves, the Times reported.
The book also contains photographs taken in the bid for emancipation. There are 'before' and 'after' images of children, showing how they could transform into respectable youngsters, and slave children with white skin to create sympathy among white northerners.
Other images allowed northerners to witness the cruelty of slavery and the respectable individuals the former slaves had become. And black leaders, including Frederick Douglass and abolitionists Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, often turned to the medium, to further their abolitionist campaigns.
Careers: Susie King Taylor, pictured left in
1902, was the first African American to teach openly in a school for
former slaves. Pictured right in 1915 is Booker T. Washington, a
teacher, author, orator, and adviser to Republican presidents. He would speak on behalf of black people who lived in the South
+16
New life: A whole family poses by a building in Savannah, Georgia in 1907
+16
Smart: The caption reads: 'District of Columbia,
Company E, Fourth U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln'. The image
was taken between 1862 and 1865
+16
Documenting change: This image of an African
American woman holding a white child in 1855 features in a new book,
Envisioning Emancipation
And, following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the use of photography evolved - eventually being used by black men and women to show off their new, postslavery looks and to portray their hopes of freedom.
Subsequently, the book, which was published earlier this month, shows how photography was central in the war against slavery, racism and segregation
