Slave-Era Photo Found

Today’s news includes the report of the dis­cov­ery — at an estate sale in Char­lotte, North Car­oli­na — of a slave-era pho­to of two young boys, one iden­ti­fied as “John,” and anoth­er uniden­ti­fied, pho­tographed by the Math­ew Brady stu­dio, prob­a­bly by Brady’s assis­tant Tim­o­thy O’Sul­li­van.

It’s a stun­ning pho­to­graph. One can see the toll slav­ery has tak­en on these chil­dren. As it was less affect­ing at the time than the pho­tographs of whipped and abused slaves, it is nonethe­less an amaz­ing tes­ta­ment to the evil lega­cy of the found­ing fathers who built the racial vio­lence and sub­jec­tion of black slav­ery.

As a geneal­o­gist, I can­not help but won­der whether these chil­dren had descen­dants, and whether these descen­dants are search­ing for them. Along with the pho­to­graph, a bill of sale for John for $1,150 in 1854.

What hap­pened to the two young boys after slav­ery times? Where did their fam­i­ly live and go? How did their for­tunes fare?