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(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) Carte-de-visite portrait of Sojourner Truth: "I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance." Albumen photograph, 3 1/4 x 2 inches, on original printed mount with caption on recto and her copyright imprint on verso; tack hole in upper margin just touching photograph, 1/2-inch tear in caption area, other minor wear to mount. Michigan, copyright 1864


  • Notes: Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery in 1826 and became one of the most influential orators of the abolitionist movement. She produced and copyrighted a series of carte-de-visite portraits in various poses to support her work--and to maintain control over her image. This seems to have been her favorite portrait, as it appears on a variety of different mounts and was used as the basis for the engraved frontispiece of her 1875 autobiography. Grigsby, Enduring Truths: Sojourner's Shadows and Substance, pages 43, 73-76 and images 52-56 (with slightly different mounts).

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