| Charles Paxson Wilson, Branded Slave from New Orleans 1863 Carte de visite Metropolitan Museum of Art Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019, Accession Number: 2019.521 LL/100921 Description (Accessed: 3 June 2020)
On January 30, 1864, to fan the anti-slavery cause and promote the sale of abolitionist photographs, Harper’s Weekly published this carte de visite and three others as wood engravings. The newspaper also included stirring bibliographies of the emancipated slaves. The editors noted that Wilson Chinn was about sixty years old. His former master, Volsey B. Marmillion, a sugar planter near New Orleans, “was accustomed to brand his negroes, and Wilson has on his forehead the letters ‘V.B.M.’”
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