The first-known “romantic” photograph of an interracial couple in the U.S. goes on auction later this month.
On October 26, Freeman’s Hindman in Cincinnati will bring to auction what is believed to be the first American photograph of a romantically posed interracial couple.
The anonymous ninth plate (2 x 2.5 inches) daguerreotype, taken around 1850-1855, depicts a white woman and an African American or mixed-race man in an amorous pose.
The rare photograph is being offered as part of Freeman’s Hindman “American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography” auction. It is expected to fetch between $5,000 and $8,500.
A Photo That Was a ‘Political Statement’
According to Fine Books & Collections Magazine, the sitters and the photographer remain a mystery.
Extensive research by the auction house has uncovered no historical record of the photograph, although they believe the image was probably taken in a Northern state in the U.S.
However, the auction house believes that the photograph was likely to have been created as a “political statement.”
In the 1850s, 28 states and several Native American tribes had laws prohibiting not only interracial marriage, but interracial sex.
Even in Northern states where abolitionism was strongest and interracial marriage was legal (New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and most of New England), interracial relationships were still viewed as taboo.
“In a world where racial stereotypes denied the humanity of African Americans and the notion that they were capable of the same emotions as white Americans, this image offers a striking rebuttal,” a spokesperson for Freeman’s Hindman tells the publication.
“Posed or not, the message of this extraordinary image is clear — in matters of the heart, white and Black could be equal partners.
“This image was likely meant to be a political statement. Photography was one of the abolitionists’ most powerful tools in not only fighting the evil of slavery, but in proving the equality of the races.”
Photography: The Abolitionists’ Most Powerful Tool
Photography was one of the abolitionists’ most powerful tools in not only fighting the evil of slavery, but in proving the equality of the races.
In the 1800s, African Americans were often grotesquely exaggerated in prints and other media. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass — who became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century — recognized photography as a means of truth-telling, and a medium that could humanize Black people.
Through photography, Douglas said that: “the humbled servant girl whose income is but a few shillings per week may now possess a more perfect likeness of herself than noble ladies and court royalty.”
However, according to Rare Book Monthly, Freeman’s Hindman notes that the daguerreotype was unsuited to widespread dissemination and could only be exposed to a wider audience through an engraving.
If this daguerreotype of an interracial couple was taken for abolitionist propaganda, it seems to have never been engraved and no trace of it exists in the historical record.
Image credits: Header Photo by Freeman’s Hindman.
