Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-Century AmericaIn 1850 seven South Carolina slaves were photographed at the request of the famous naturalist Louis Agassiz to provide evidence of the supposed biological inferiority of Africans. Lost for many years, the photographs were rediscovered in the attic of Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 1976. In the first narrative history of these images, Molly Rogers tells the story of the photographs, the people they depict, and the men who made and used them. Weaving together the histories of race, science, and photography in nineteenth-century America, Rogers explores the invention and uses of photography, the scientific theories the images were intended to support and how these related to the race politics of the time, the meanings that may have been found in the photographs, and the possible reasons why they were “lost” for a century or more. Each image is accompanied by a brief fictional vignette about the subject’s life as imagined by Rogers; these portraits bring the seven subjects to life, adding a fascinating human dimension to the historical material. |
Contents
Cotton | |
Transformation | |
Humbug | |
Storm Blood and Fire | |
A Positive Good | |
Niggerology | |
Opposite Views | |
Investigations | |
Evidence | |
Scientific Moonshine | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-century America Molly Rogers,David W. Blight No preview available - 2010 |
Delia's Tears: Race, Science, and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America Molly Rogers,David W Blight No preview available - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
abolitionists African Americans Archaeology and Ethnology believed Big Lake Boston Caldwell Cary Charleston claimed color Columbia cotton Crania Cuvier Daguerre daguerreotypes daguerreotypes of slaves daguerreotypist debate Delia doctor Drana enslaved ethnology experience eyes Fassena Feejee Mermaid Frederick Douglass Gibbes Gliddon Harvard University Human Race idea images inferior Jack James Henry Hammond John Bachman Josiah Nott lectures letter lived look Louis Agassiz matter McCaskill Museum of Archaeology natural history naturalist Negro nineteenth century North original diversity Peabody Museum perhaps Philadelphia photographs picture plantation planters political polygenesis professor quoted racial Renty Richland County Samuel George Morton scientific scientists Singleton slaveholders slavery social society South Carolina College South Carolina Press South Caroliniana Library Southern species specimens Taylor theory Thomas thought took Truth Types of Mankind unity University of South University Press Wade Hampton Wade Hampton II wrote Yeadon York Zealy