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April 2002
A Virginia Slave Child in 1863. Albumen on carte-de-visite mount by Van Dorn, 1863.
Posed as a mother and daughter, this recently acquired carte-de-visite
portrait depicts the emancipated slave child, Fannie "Pinky"
Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, and her adoptive guardian, Catherine S. Lawrence.
Born a slave in Virginia, Fannie was redeemed and brought by Ms. Lawrence,
a military nurse, to New York where in 1863 the abolitionist minister
Henry Ward Beecher baptized the five-year old at the Plymouth Church in
Brooklyn. Within the year, a series of cartes-de-visite portraits of Fannie,
possibly to promote her education, was circulated promoting her young
age, her redemption, and her baptism, the explicit anti-slavery message
conceivably made more acceptable by her fair skin.
Fannie posed for a handful of photographers in New York, Hartford, and Boston, including the maker of this portrait, Van Dorn, a "photograph artist at 285 Fulton Street, Brooklyn." The photographer undoubtedly empathized with the antislavery movement as did probably the copyright holder of this new acquisition, T.C. Fanning, possibly New York publisher Thomas C. Fanning.
This portrait is our second of Fannie from the near dozen known in the series, with the total number of poses still unascertained. It is different from many of the known cartes-de-visite of the child in that Catherine Lawrence is not the copyright holder, nor does it contain the description of the girl's redemption and baptism on the mount. Despite this omission, Fannie's story had obviously become widespread as shown by a previous owner's notation of "Plymouth Church," the site of her baptism, on the back of the photograph.
It also complements our collection of the only other known commissioned series of emancipated slave propaganda cartes-de-visite, those issued by the National Freedmen's Relief Association from 1863-1864. The series also showcased fair-skinned emancipated slave children, and, as with Fannie, the total number of portraits produced in a set remains a mystery.