Exposing Slavery

Exposing Slavery explores how photography shaped and was shaped by conflicts over human bondage in the United States. From the introduction of photography in 1839 to the first moments of emancipation in 1865, photography powerfully influenced how bondage and freedom were documented, imagined, and contested. Drawing on an original source base that includes hundreds of unpublished and little-studied photographs of slaves, ex-slaves, free African Americans, and abolitionists, this book sheds new light on conflicts over late American slavery, while also revealing a key moment in the relationship between modern visual culture and racialized forms of power and resistance.