Rebecca, A Slave Girl From New Orleans, CDV studio portrait. New York: Chas. Paxson, n.d., Titled and captioned to mount recto. Publisher’s imprint, copyright statement, and charity statement printed to mount verso.

A studio shot full-length portrait of a young light-skinned African American girl posed next to a mirror; her gaze affixed upon the audience through the lens.

This and other similar photos were produced by abolitionists as a way to raise money for “the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf," which was, for a time, under the command of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks during the war. The decision to photograph light-skinned children was a deliberate choice, meant to stir the passions of white Americans undecided on the question of slavery.

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