Charles Paxson1863Wilson, Branded Slave from New Orleans
Carte de visite
Metropolitan Museum of ArtPurchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019, Accession Number: 2019.521
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.'
LL/100921