Envisioning Emancipation: The Black Image and Civil War Photography

In this presentation, photography historian Deborah Willis, and historian Barbara Krauthamer discuss the use of portrait photography as historical evidence. Together they examine several photographs of African Americans in the era of the U.S. Civil War, before and after emancipation; and analyze the evidence in the images in terms of the fundamental influence of African Americans, particularly African-American women, in shaping our understanding of this period of American history.