Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War [Hardcover]

Jackie Napolean Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

As slaves, African Americans were virtually invisible to history. Even after the Civil War there were not many African American photographers and very few people had the time, money or freedom to sit for a portrait. Consequently only a few hundred such pictures have survived from that time to bear witness to African Americans and the lives they led. Jackie Wilson has assembled a comprehensive collection of such images into one volume. The daguerreotypes and tintypes shown here present these men and women in situations and attire that brings the truth of their daily lives much closer to us. Scenes of maternal affection, matrimony, war and the grim realities of the master/slave relationship help focus perceptions of the African American experience in the US.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The image is striking: A woman gazes serenely at the camera, baby cradled in her arms in classic Madonna-and-child pose. More striking is the fact that the sitters are black, and the photograph dates from 1860. Few photographs from the mid-19th century feature African Americans, enslaved or free. Those that do are often staged and reflect the biases of the photographer or the printmaker who published them. Others, however, provide glimpses of daily life before the abolition of slavery.

Renowned collector of early photographs Jackie Napolean Wilson has compiled 70 such images in Hidden Witness. Each photograph--whether an outdoor scene, where slaves are afterthoughts in the frame, so-called Mammy portraits of slaves holding white children, studio portraits of proud freemen and women--is accompanied by a brief explanation, contextualizing the image and speculating on the nature of the pictured relationships. Some of the subjects are famous, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass; others, though unknowns, carry a force of their own: the exuberant grin of the prizewinning boxer, the proud stance of a Union soldier, the quiet dignity of a slave nurse. A handsome addition to the history of African Americans and photography. --Sunny Delaney

From Library Journal

Hidden Witness consists of reproductions of 69 photographs--almost all from attorney Wilson's private collection as well as a few from the Getty Museum's holdings--that depict African Americans in the 1840s, 1850s, and early 1860s. Most of the photos are formal studio portraits, but others are outdoor scenes. The commentary by Wilson accompanying each photo is more personal reaction and interpretation than conventional scholarship. Something of the difficult lives and restrictive environment in which the pre-Emancipation slaves and freedmen existed are revealed through often subtle clues in posing, clothing, sitter's interactions, arrangement of nearby objects, etc. Considering the paucity of visual documentation from the era of American slavery, this collection of photos is an invaluable resource. In contrast, Jezierski (history, Saginaw Valley State Univ.) offers us a thorough, scholarly study of a heretofore little explored aspect of African American cultural history, detailing the lives and careers of a family of black professional photographers who operated studios in Pennsylvania and Michigan. The nearly eight decades in which Glenalvin, Wallace, and William Goodridge practiced literally spans the early history of photography in America. The Goodridge Brothers not only managed to establish themselves and then flourish as professional photographers, they also gained international renown for their expertise in large-format photography. Both books will engage two groups of readers, those interested in African American history and students of the development of photography in America. Recommended for all libraries serving either of those two constituencies.
-Eugene C. Burt, Seattle
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312245467
• ISBN-13: 978-0312245467
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,253,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful images - a feast for the eyes., January 5, 2000

By 

Ansel Arbus (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War (Hardcover)

This is a small book loaded with powerful images. Daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of African-Americans from the author's collection and the J. Paul Getty collection are beautifully reproduced. The author, however, should have let these images stand on their own. The majority of photographs taken before 1860 have, due to the passage of time and lack of documentation, become anonymous, with little information about their subjects preserved. It is tempting for viewers (and especially collectors) to speculate on the identity and life of the sitter. While this makes for lively text, there is no guarantee that what the author puts forth is any closer to the reality than what the reader sees in the image. A fireman's helmet makes him a fireman, but it doesn't necessarily make him a Philadelphia fireman. Fine clothes do not always make the sitter well-to-do. Collectors should resist the temptation to attribute more to an image than meets the eye. Ultimately, they should let the images, magnificent in their own right, speak for themselves. Look at these images and fall into your own vision of history's bravest souls.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting images of 19th black Americans, May 23, 2000

By 

The Sanity Inspector (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War (Hardcover)

These pictures are taken from the author's collection of early photographs of black Americans, reputed on the flap copy to be the largest such in existence. If you enjoy looking at old photos, these richly repay the viewing. The plantation scenes are interesting--many such grand houses still survive, so it is intriguing to see them peopled with their original inhabitants. The portraits are also compelling, as we try to read the eyes of the subject across the void of years. The author does climb on rainbows a bit, trying to get into these people's minds. And he is inexplicably wrong about the first photo in the book--the black gardener is not in the photo by mistake, but obviously by the family's choice, since the long exposure required by the primitive cameras obliged the subjects to be still for an appreciable length of time. Plus, he is clearly posed in a well-lit spot. Quibbles aside, this is a very interesting collection of antebellum photos of black Americans, slave and free. Photography buffs will find it rewarding.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Pictures - Commentary Stinks, October 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Hidden Witness: African American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War (Hardcover)

I picked this book up at the library. As I am also a collector of old photographs, I was intrigued. The book does contain a wonderful collection; it's worth looking at.

But as everyone has observed, I too found the commentary a source of concern and irritation. Much of it is total fabrication. That is definately a pair of rosary bead around the woman's neck on page 46. To claim otherwise is a deliberate intention to misdirect. The woman was far from thinking of her roots. She just wanted to leave a picture for her family to enjoy and remember her by.

Mr. Wilson is an author I will avoid from now on.