Posted on 10/13/2014 5:56:54 AM PDT by armydawg505
An “extremely rare” Civil War-era photograph of the enslaved woman who helped save Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Virginia home has been obtained by the National Park Service after a volunteer spotted the image on eBay.
The previously unknown photograph depicts Selina Gray, the head housekeeper to Lee and his family, along with two girls thought to be her daughters. The photograph was unveiled Thursday at the Arlington House plantation overlooking the nation's capital that was home to Lee and dozens of slaves before the Civil War.
An inscription on the back of the image reads "Gen Lees Slaves Arlington Va."
Park officials said this is only the second known photograph taken of slaves at Arlington.
"It's extremely rare to have an identified photo of an enslaved person," said National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles. "Since slaves were considered property, it's very rare to have a photo where you can identify the people in the photo."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They were obviously household servants and had to present a decent appearance. What did he expect? That they'd be dressed in rags and bound in chains?
General Lee was famous for treating his slaves like valued employees or even quasi-family. It isn’t polite to say so, but a lot of them, especially in the upper South, lived far better than factory workers in the North including better food, living arrangements, time off, old age care and the like.
Of course, people ought not to be a "commodity", but the point is that slaveowners had to care about the welfare of their slaves. In the industrial northeast, the factory workers cared far less about their workers -- after all: immigrant labor was arriving every day from Europe, so industrial workers were easily replaced. Unlike slaves.
Yes, that part of history has been swept under the rug.
Most slaves were treated well and as part of the family in many ways.
Basically the modern equivalent would be today’s household pets, many of which are treated like family, but some of which are horribly abused.
Imagine a future in which having pets is thought of as horrible, and all references to pets being treated nicely were wiped from the history books and only stories about dog fights and puppy mills and owners who chain and beat their dogs remained. That’s basically what has happened.
Do the girls look like da’ General?
The pic of the slave women on the Fox News site is a stereoscope picture. Which means it was mass produced at some point in time.
BTW...Those images side-by-side are actually a stereopraph, to be viewed in 3-D in a stereopticon.
If the yankees hadn't burned so much, maybe more would have survived.
You beat me by a few seconds. As a retired auctioneer, over 38 years in the budiness I sold quite a few stereopticons and the cards that were used in them
In fact, in more accurate materials I have read, it was told that in general only the extremely wealthy usually owned slaves because they were a headache... they had to be housed, fed, medical care, they could run off, etc. that kind of money would be much better spent on farm machinery in most cases.
Her skirt is beautiful - I love the buttons down the front. I wonder if it’s her Sunday best? She looks like a formidable lady! Kept the General and his daughters in line, I’ll bet - just like Mammy in GWTW.
I don’t believe Lee owned the slaves. I believe they belonged to his wife although I get mixed up on this fact.
I’m certainly not defending slavery, but I think the commonly held view of slavery is grossly inaccurate. Prior to 1805, if they died, you’d just ship more over from Africa. After 1805, they were a rather scarce and valuable commodity.
...
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons the Slave Power wanted to break off as a separate country, they could start importing slaves again.
On many levels, I think the Civil War (like WWI) was a huge mistake. The problem was fixing itself -- now, 150 years later, it's still not fixed. And we ended states rights and built a massive federal government to boot as part of the "solution".
It isn’t polite to say so, but a lot of them, especially in the upper South, lived far better than factory workers in the North including better food, living arrangements, time off, old age care and the like.
...
If you had the choice, which would you be?
Robert E. Lee was a great American.
I don’t have all that many ancestors who held slaves, only three who had more than one. In two instances, they lived in the exact sort of building, a German double pen chestnut log structure, that the white people did. Of course that was just the multipurpose structure that they built, their livestock lived in one as well, just as surely as they did. Life in the backcountry on the Carolina wilderness frontier was like that. Practical and gritty, seldom even remotely glamorous.
The owners and family worked alongside the slaves. Their lives were no more grueling than that of their owners. There were several different legal statuses for people in the colonial era, from freeman to bound servant (indentured adult or apprenticed child, usually orphaned) to slave. Slaves could buy their way out of it and some did.
It’s not quite as awful as it’s generally depicted, but it’s not a status that I’d ever want for myself. There were atrocities, these occurred on the huge plantations. Even they didn’t go about damaging or destroying their slave labor randomly out of spite or imputed racism, it was due to disobedience, they were “made an example of” to deter running away, etc. among the hundreds of others.
I don’t advocate it and I don’t want a return to it, but an unvarnished, unpoliticized honesty in discussing the history is long overdue.
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