These 100 year-old, fascinating photographs show how life was for African Americans in segregation years after slavery ended. They are available for auction.
These images depict children and women picking cotton in South during Jim Crow.
These photos were taken along the Southern Railway’s route through Virginia, Carolina, and Mississippi at the beginning of the 20th century. They were then used to create a series magic lantern slide presentations for British audiences on life after Emancipation.
Although slavery was abolished with the 13th Amendment in 1865, many blacks still lived under segregation, which prevented them from accessing education, transportation, and other public services for years.
These images also show white farmers adapting the postwar shift in agriculture after slavery was freed, but receiving little tax.
This lecture was titled “Life Among the Darkies” and shows the prevailing racism on both sides.
E G Wood supplied the lecture slides, which were manufactured from London by a lantern- and slide maker.
Some of the glass slides were hand-colored and will be available for purchase at David Lay Auctioneers, Cornwall, Great Britain.
The identity of the photographer is unknown.
Mimi Connell Lay of David Lay said that the slides were remarkable social history documents. They capture African Americans and white farmers and their families in Mississippi, Virginia, and Carolina.
“Although many of the subjects are barefoot or dressed in rags, they still capture beautiful shots.”
In one series of slide presentations, a group of women from the black community washes their clothes while standing naked in the dirt. This is taken around 1900 in the American Deep South. Many emancipated females were hired as laundresses or washerwomen after the Civil War. Washerwomen made up more than 50% of African American women. They typically earned $4-8 per month and are worth approximately $130. In protest of their wages, 500 washerwomen organized a strike on 1881. This led to some small raises for some workers.
Many slaves came from Africa and Caribbean, where they were forced to pick cotton on the plantations. Many slaves continued to work in the fields after they were freed in 1865. The wage system was not as important in the South. Many businesses were closed and workers received a meager salary. Racial violence, lynchings and other forms of violence were still commonplaces on farms. This led to rebellions against their owners. A cotton-picking strike at Arkansas in 1891 led to the execution of nine protesters.
A series of slide images featuring two young, barefoot women in pinafore dress drawing water from the well at their home. They are being auctioned tomorrow. Schools were separated during Jim Crow. White children got much more money than schools for their black students. There were few black schools, and most of them were too crowded. Many were not able to attend because they had to work on farms. Many of those who did go were forced to attend classes in one classroom with students from kindergarten through eighth grades.
The family gathers around a fire pit to cook together, while wearing only their most basic clothes. The 13th Amendment was passed in 1865, and slavery was banned in America. The Union soldiers did not pay compensation to slave owners and Texas was their last state. The army arrived in Galveston (Texas) on June 19, 1865. There, they declared victory over slavery and ended the war. Now, Juneteenth is a Federal Holiday in the USA.
One of the images shows a family of white farmers taking a photograph together. Most of the white farmers were employed on subsistence farms to provide food for their family and neighbors before Emancipation. After the Civil War, cotton prices plummeted. Larger plantation farms were divided into smaller farms. The poorer white farmers began to grow their cotton.
The series of images was taken in 1900 and shows a family standing around a house made from wood. In the series of images taken around 1900, a black family stands in front of a wooden house. The 13th Amendment was added to the United States Constitution. It was ratified December 1865. The lecture slides show that many of the individuals pictured were either slaves or descendants of slaves.
In one stark image of American South agriculture, a woman is seen standing with her young son over a barrel. The Jim Crow laws, controversial rules that made it impossible to segregate public services in Southern Confederacy states were known as the Jim Crow laws. These laws were passed between 1876-1865 and were meant to grant African Americans an ‘equal but separate’ status. However, in practice they led to inferior conditions than those enjoyed by whites.
From a wooden shelter, a man is carrying a cotton basket. In the decades after the Civil War, most African Americans who lived in the ‘cotton kingdom’ of the deep south continued to work for white people, with a majority in the cotton business — and while they were free, their wages often didn’t reflect that
While a dog looks on, white farmers cut wood using saws and axes. These images were made into magic lantern slides that illustrated lecture tours in Britain. They showed people how life was in the south at that time.
One of the photographs up for auction today shows a family standing in front of their house. The United States was among the Western countries that abolished slavery. Many forms of segregation were still in effect until the Civil Rights movement, which took place in the 1960s.
At a South farm, two white agriculturists care for their pigs. David Lay Auctioneers in Cornwall, England has the 44 glass slides. Seven of them are hand-colored.