| Wilson Chinn | |
| Known For: | Subject of photos demonstrating instruments of torture, widely circulated during the American Civil War |
Wilson Chinn (1863) was an escaped American slave from Louisiana who became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive use of torture received in slavery. The "branded slave" photograph of Chinn with "VBM" (the initials of his owner, Volsey B. Marmillion) branded on his forehead, wearing a punishment collar, and posing with other equipment used to punish slaves became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War and remains one of the most famous photos of that era.
The New York Times writer Joan Paulson Gage, noted in 2013 that "The images of Wilson Chinn in chains, like the one of Gordon and his scarred back, are as disturbing today as they were in 1863. They serve as two of the earliest and most dramatic examples of how the newborn medium of photography could change the course of history."[1]
Abolitionist, civil rights activist, and Union colonel George H. Hanks sent photographs with descriptions of emancipated child slaves and Chinn in a letter to George William Curtis, then editor of Harper's Weekly,[2] the most widely read journal during the Civil War, which appeared in the January 1864 article "Emancipated Slaves White and Colored":[3]
The former slaves, including Chinn, traveled from New Orleans to the North. The group was accompanied by Colonel Hanks from the 18th Infantry Regiment. They posed for photos in New York City and in Philadelphia. The resulting images were produced in the carte de visite format and were sold for twenty-five cents each, with the profits of the sale being directed to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks back in Louisiana to support education of freedmen. Each of the photos noted that sale proceeds would be "devoted to the education of colored people". Most of these were produced by Charles Paxson and Myron Kimball, who took the group photo that later appeared as a woodcut in Harper's Weekly.
This helped fan the anti-slavery cause and promote the sale of abolitionist photographs.[4]
See main article: article. Of these, four children appeared to be white or octoroon. Hank's letter in Harper's Weekly described them as "perfectly white", "very fair", "of unmixed white race", which contrasted them with the three adults, Wilson, Mary, and Robert and the fifth child, Isaac—"a black boy of eight years; but none the less intelligent than his whiter companions."
Harper's Weekly description of them "as white, as intelligent, as docile as most of our own children" has been identified as propaganda to win the support of Northerners.[5]
In the 21st century, the Paxson No. 8 "branded slave" image of Chinn[6] has appeared on display at: