Table of Contents
“The Scourged Back” Photograph
Overview
Context
About the Author
Explanation and Analysis of the Document
Audience
Impact
Document Image
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Abstract
This photo was referred to as “The Scourged Back” by abolitionists who used it to justify ending slavery. It is sometimes referred to as “Whipped Peter” or “Gordon” based upon different assumptions about the picture at different times in its history. Recent research suggests that the subject was named Peter. When an engraving of the image appeared in Harper’s magazine on July 4, 1863, it was attributed to the photographer William D. McPherson and his partner J. Oliver. Exactly who took the photo is impossible to tell. It was probably taken in April 1863.
Book contents
- John Rolfe’s Letter to Sir Edwin Sandys about Enslaved Africans
- Virginia’s Act XII: Negro Women’s Children to Serve according to the Condition of the Mother
- Virginia’s Act III: Baptism Does Not Exempt Slaves from Bondage
- “A Minute against Slavery, Addressed to Germantown Monthly Meeting”
- Samuel Sewall: The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial
- James Oglethorpe: “An Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina”
- Daniel Horsmanden: The New-York Conspiracy
- Dockside At Virginia Tobacco Warehouse Illustration
- John Woolman: Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes
- Slaves for Sale Advertisement
- Thomas Jefferson: Advertisement for a Runaway Slave
- Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation
- Petition of Prince Hall and Other African Americans to the Massachusetts General Court
- Pennsylvania: An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
- Commonwealth v. Nathaniel Jennison
- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of Virginia
- The Old Plantation Painting
- Constitutional Convention: Debates on Slavery
- Slavery Clauses in the U.S. Constitution
- Drawing of the Slave Ship Brookes
- Alexander Falconbridge: An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa
- Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
- Richard Allen: “An Address to Those Who Keep Slaves, and Approve the Practice”
- Prince Hall: A Charge Delivered to the African Lodge
- Venture Smith: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa
- Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves
- Peter Williams, Jr.: “Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade”
- Missouri Compromise
- Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm: First Freedom’s Journal Editorial
- David Walker: Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
- State v. Mann
- William Lloyd Garrison: First Liberator Editorial
- The Confessions of Nat Turner
- “Jump Jim Crow” Song-and-Dance Routine
- Joseph Story: “Privileges of Citizens—Fugitives—Slaves”
- Lydia Maria Child: Thoughts on Slavery and Emancipation
- James Buchanan: Remarks to Congress on Slavery
- William Drayton: The South Vindicated from the Treason . . . of the Northern Abolitionists
- Wendell Phillips: “The Murder of Lovejoy”
- John C. Calhoun: “Slavery a Positive Good”
- United States v. Amistad
- Prigg v. Pennsylvania
- Henry Highland Garnet: “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America”
- William Lloyd Garrison: “Address to the Friends of Freedom and Emancipation in the United States”
- Frederick Douglass: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Richard Doyle: “The Land of Liberty” Cartoon
- Salmon P. Chase: Reclamation of Fugitives from Service
- William Wells Brown: “Slavery as It Is”
- Frederick Douglass: “Letter to My Old Master”
- Currier & Ives: “Congressional Scales” Cartoon
- Compromise of 1850
- Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
- John C. Calhoun: “On the Slavery Question”
- Henry “Box” Brown: Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself
- Samuel A. Cartwright: “Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race”
- Souther v. Commonwealth
- Charles Sumner: “Freedom National; Slavery Sectional” Speech
- Frederick Douglass: “Fourth of July” Speech
- Martin Delany: The Condition, Elevation, ... and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States
- Solomon Northup: Twelve Years a Slave
- Wendell Phillips: “The Philosophy of the Abolition Movement”
- Kansas-Nebraska Act
- William J. Grayson: “The Hireling and the Slave”
- John L. Magee: “Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler” Cartoon
- P.C. Weston: Rules on the Rice Estate
- Hinton Rowan Helper: The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It
- James Stirling: Letters from the Slave States
- Dred Scott v. Sandford
- “Picking Cotton, Georgia, 1858” Illustration
- James Henry Hammond: “Cotton Is King” Speech
- Abraham Lincoln: “House Divided” Speech
- Thomas R.R. Cobb: An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America
- John Brown: Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States
- Ableman v. Booth
- Wendell Phillips: “The Puritan Principle and John Brown”
- Brigham Young: Sermon on Race and Slavery
- Charles Langston: Speech in Oberlin- Wellington Trial
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Speech for the Anniversary of the American Anti- Slavery Society
- Virginia Slave Code
- Lydia Maria Child: Correspondence with Mrs. Mason on John Brown
- South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of Secession
- Confederate Constitution
- Frederick Law Olmsted: Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom
- Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- Alexander Stephens: Cornerstone Speech
- Thornton Stringfellow: Slavery: Considered in the Light of Bible Teachings
- David Einhorn: Response to “Bible View of Slavery”
- District of Columbia: An Act for the Release of Certain Persons Held to Service or Labor
- Frederick Douglass: “The Reasons for Our Troubles”
- Treaty between United States and Great Britain for the Suppression of the Slave Trade
- Emancipation Proclamation
- Frances Ann Kemble: Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838– 1839
- “The Scourged Back” Photograph
- Frederick Douglass: “Men of Color, To Arms!”
- War Department General Order 143 Establishing the Bureau of U.S. Colored Troops
- Thomas Morris Chester: Civil War Dispatches
- William T. Sherman: Special Field Order No. 15
- Photograph of the 107th U.S. Colored Infantry
- Black Code of Mississippi
- Gordon Granger: General Order No. 3
- Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- William Lloyd Garrison: Valedictory Editorial of the Liberator
- Thomas Garrett: Description of Harriet Tubman
- Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution