Chaotic Freedom and the Scars of Slavery:
From Baton Rouge to Northampton
From Baton Rouge to Northampton
An Exhibition at Historic Northampton
October 12 - December 9, 2018
October 12 - December 9, 2018
Based on Bruce Laurie's essay "Chaotic Freedom" in Civil War Louisiana: The Origins of an Iconic Image
Featuring reproduction photographs of Civil War carte-de-visite photographs by Stan Sherer
Featuring reproduction photographs of Civil War carte-de-visite photographs by Stan Sherer
"We learn here, also, that the stories of cruelty to the slaves are not destitute of truth. I saw last week one of the most horrid and singular objects I ever beheld. It was the bare back of a negro who had been beaten by an overseer. "
- Henry S. Gere, Letters from the 52d, April 6, 1863, published in the Hampshire Gazette, May 5, 1863
- Henry S. Gere, Letters from the 52d, April 6, 1863, published in the Hampshire Gazette, May 5, 1863
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In early April 1863, Northampton newspaper publisher Henry S. Gere wrote a letter from Baton Rouge for publication in the Hampshire Gazette. Gere described for a white northern audience the scarred back of an enslaved man named Peter.
Gere and Marshall S. Stearns of Northfield were serving in the Union army and met Peter who had fled slavery and arrived at the encampment where they were stationed. Shocked by what they saw, Gere and Stearns collaborated to produce a photograph utilizing a new photographic medium called the carte-de-visite. Gere sent the photograph to bookseller Sidney E. Bridgman of Northampton for public viewing. Months later, a version of the image reached a national audience on the pages of Harper's Weekly magazine. Today, the photograph is considered the most iconic image of an enslaved American. Peter was one of thousands of self-liberated men, women and children who entered the Baton Rouge camp. Stearns and Gere witnessed their plight and the disorder that followed emancipation. Gere characterized the aftermath of slavery as "chaotic freedom." |
Henry Gere and Marshall Stearns saw first-hand
the realities of slavery and its aftermath at this "contraband" camp Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Carte-de-visite photographs - size 2 1/2" by 4" - brought back from Baton Rouge by Henry S. Gere are shown in this exhibit in large-scale reproductions by photographer Stan Sherer.
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Henry Gere brought home from Baton Rouge eighteen card photographs probably from the photography studio of William D. McPherson and J. Oliver of Baton Rouge. Historian Bruce Laurie chronicled this story based upon these photographs (now in the collection of Historic Northampton) and letters sent home by both men. His research is paired with photographer Stan Sherer's photographic reproductions of the 1863 carte-de-visite images.
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The exhibition is based upon historian Bruce Laurie's 2016 essay "Chaotic Freedom" in Civil War Louisiana: The Origins of an Iconic Image" published by The Massachusetts Review. Limited copies of the essay are available for sale in the museum store. Also available on Amazon Kindle.
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In conjunction with the 2018 ALL HAMPTONS READ, a community reading event of the book, Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar.
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BRUCE LAURIE, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Rebels in Paradise: Sketches of Northampton Abolitionists (2015); The Rise of Conservatism in America: A Brief History with Documents with Ronald Story (2008); Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform (2005); and others. In 2011, Laurie was Scholar in Residence at Historic Northampton under a research grant awarded by Mass Humanities, where he studied abolitionism in Northampton using the resources of Historic Northampton, the David Ruggles Center, and Forbes Library. His essay "Chaotic Freedom" in Civil War Louisiana: The Origins of an Iconic Image is available through Weightless Books, Amazon Kindle and Kobo.
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STAN SHERER has published five books of photographs, including Long Life to Your Children! a portrait of High Albania and Founding Farms. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Albania, a recipient of two Mass Foundation grants, and numerous other grants and awards. He has exhibited his photographs across the United States and in Europe. Exhibits/USA traveled his exhibition On the Land: Three Centuries of American Farmlife throughout the country for ten years. Sherer has worked as a photojournalist and documentary photographer in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, and in Asia. He has a strong interest in local history and is Vice President of the Board of Trustees of Historic Northampton. His documentary films include The Brush Shop and The Gilded Cage. Stan Sherer holds a B.A. from the City University of New York and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts.
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Historic Northampton is located at 46 Bridge Street, Northampton, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10-4 and Sundays from 12-5. There is no admission fee. Donations are greatly appreciated. The museum will be closed for Thanksgiving Wednesday - Friday, November 21-23, 2018. Regular hours resume Saturday, November 24, 2018.
Please note that exhibitions are inaccessible while Programs in the Damon Education Center are in session.