Chaotic Freedom in Civil War Louisiana

The Origins of an Iconic Image
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62534-632-2
Verlag: University of Massachusetts Press

Buch, Englisch, 128 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 318 g

The image is terrible and familiar. A man sits, his face in profile, his torso exposed. His back is a breathtaking mass of scars, crisscrossing his body and baring the brutality of American slavery. Reproduced as a carte de visite, the image circulated widely throughout abolitionist networks and was featured in Harper's Weekly. Its undeniable power testified to the evils of slavery. But who was this man and how did this image come to be?

Bruce Laurie uncovers the people and events that created this seminal image, telling the tale of three men, two Yankee soldiers from western Massachusetts who were serving the Union Army in Louisiana and a man named Peter whose scarred back horrified all who saw it. The two soldiers were so shocked by what had been done to Peter, they sought to capture the image and document slavery's cruelty, the likes of which was all too common among those fleeing bondage in Louisiana. Meticulously researched and briskly told, this short volume unearths the story behind an iconic image.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Laurie, Bruce

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Geschichte der Sklaverei
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

BRUCE LAURIE is professor emeritus of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Rebels in Paradise: Sketches of Northampton Abolitionists.