The White Slave

The White Slave

anti-slavery
California
slavery
Stereograph
photography

This is a photograph of a white child shining a black man’s shoes. It was used in the anti-slavery movement in California to evoke sympathy and show how inhumane slavery was. Although bonded labour was deemed illegal in the state laws, there were loopholes which meant that some individuals still practiced slavery.
In the background of the composite image, are various newspaper headlines with the words ‘white slave’ being the most prominent. It is a manipulated photograph because the bottom edge is square, but the top is curved – wet-plate processed pictures of the 1860s were typically square.
Lawrence and Houseworth were photographic practitioners who invested in the new technology of the late nineteenth-century, after their economic failure in the Gold Rush. Their stereographic pictures of the Californian landscape were often used to attract tourists.

Lawrence & Houseworth, San Francisco, California

California State Library: California History Section Picture Catalogue

https://calisphere.org/item/c061054db503bb21b24f33cb75bd2643/

1863

Leah Guy

California State Library
https://calisphere.org/

English

Visual - photograph

19th century California