[SLAVERY & ABOLITION]. CDV of Robert Whitehead with white slave children Rebecca and Rosa of New Orleans. New London, CT: Morgan & Bolles, ca 1863-1864.
Sale 994 - African Americana
Feb 23, 2022
11:00AM ET
Live / Cincinnati
Estimate
$800 -
$1,200
Sold for $2,000
Sold prices are inclusive of Buyer’s Premium
Lot Description
[SLAVERY & ABOLITION]. CDV of Robert Whitehead with white slave children Rebecca and Rosa of New Orleans. New London, CT: Morgan & Bolles, ca 1863-1864.
2 1/4 x 4 in. CDV on cardstock mount (image with toning and soft focus throughout, edges clipped). Verso with Morgan & Bolles' imprint. Appears to be a period cropped copy of 1863 portrait, Emancipated Slaves, by Myron H. Kimball. Subjects featured here are Robert Whitehead, Rebecca Huger, and Rosina Downs.
According to an article appearing in Harper's Weekly, dated 30 January 1864, Rev. Robert Whitehead was born in Baltimore and taken to Norfolk, VA and thence to New Orleans, LA, by various enslavers including a Dr. Cook and a Dr. Leslie. In New Orleans, Whitehead painted houses and ships, eventually earning enough to buy his freedom. It is known that he enlisted in the US Army after gaining freedom, and HDS locates a Robert Whitehead enlisting at New Orleans in around August of 1863, and mustering into Company C of the 99th Infantry United States Colored Troops.
The caption of the original, full Kimball photograph reads, "Brought from Louisiana by Col. Geo. H. Hanks. The Children are from the Schools established by order of Maj. Gen. Banks." Subjects included Wilson Chinn, Charles Taylor, Augusta Broujey, Mary Johnson, Isaac White, Robert Whitehead, Rebecca Huger, and Rosina Downs.
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