[George N. Barnard, photographer]. Outdoor albumen stereoview of an Atlanta slave market. Cardstock mount. N.p.: N.d., [1864?]. Period ink inscription to verso reads: "Slave Pen in Atlanta, G[a]." alongside a red 2-cent revenue stamp. 

One of the few known contemporary photographs of a slave market, bearing a large sign reading "Auction &* Negro Sales." The business was operated by Crawford, Frazer & Co. at 8 Whitehall Street, on what is now Peachtree Street, where the Five Points station now stands. A man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a rifle, possibly a Union soldier, is seated before the storefront.

This view was one of a series of photographs taken by George Barnard (1819 - 1902), the only photographer to accompany General Sherman during his famous Atlanta Campaign and "March to the Sea," as the official photographer of the Military Division of the Mississippi. Barnard's images of the campaign include haunting images of battlefields, stunning landscape views, public and private buildings, railroads, various encampments, military scenes, and the general destruction wreaked by Sherman’s army. General Sherman’s capture of the city of Atlanta is widely credited as securing Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in 1864. Lincoln’s victory ensured the war would continue, resulting in eventual Union victory and the universal emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Other known copies were published by E. & H.T. Anthony of New York (c.f. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2018.43.12; Library of Congress, LOT 4164-A, no. 206 [P&P]; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019.538), though this copy is without any imprint. 

An important and scarce view by Barnard. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards]