The Power of Image in the American Abolitionism: Getting a Black Reality through the White Prejudice

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper emphasizes the power of image as a principal tool of political strategy in the American Abolitionism during the mid-nineteenth century. It attends first to the nature of an image with the issue of control and power. Then it moves to how an image was utilized by three actors of the time, the anti-abolitionists, the pro-abolitionists—both developed stock images of race for the opposing purposes—and the slaves who had to get the better of stereotypes to reach a black reality. With photography as the more accurate medium of image in the War era, the paper traces how the white sympathizers and the blacks overcame the white prejudice. Delia is introduced to show that even in a forced situation the subject could transfer her reality. Then the making of Gordon’s whipped-back image is traced to show how a type and an idiosyncrasy were fused into an image, followed by military images as idiosyncratic types. Anderson’s, Truth’s and Bibb’s portraits are discussed as diverse ways to reach their reality, whether by collaborating with the photographer, by manipulating a self-portrait as a type of a black lady, or by undermining the whites’ norm of the social status. The power of image allowed them to get their black reality.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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