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
An exhibition based on Bruce Laurie's essay "Chaotic Freedom" in Civil War Louisiana: The Origins of an Iconic Image (2016)
featuring photographic reproductions by Stan Sherer of 1863 carte-de-visite photographs in the collection of Historic Northampton that reveal the story of two local Union army soldiers who saw first-hand the realities of slavery and its aftermath at a "contraband" camp where they were stationed in Civil War Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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In 1863, Northampton newspaper publisher Henry S. Gere (Hampshire Gazette) and Northfield currier and carpenter Marshall S. Stearns served together in the Union army in Baton Rouge.
Gere and Stearns witnessed the plight of thousands of enslaved men, woman and children who fled plantations for freedom in the Union army encampments. They wanted to inform those back home of the brutality of slavery and the disorder - "chaotic freedom" - that followed emancipation. Gere chronicled what he saw for reports in the Hampshire Gazette: a lack of basic necessities that led to illness or death. Together, they collaborated to produce a photograph of the scars on the back of an enslaved man named Peter who arrived at their Union camp. Months later, a version of the image reached a national audience on the pages of Harper's Weekly magazine. The photograph has outlived the Civil War and is considered today the most iconic image of an enslaved American. |
Carte-de-visite of a Contraband Camp in Baton Rouge
William McPherson and J. Oliver, Baton Rouge 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 from the photography studio of William D. McPherson and J. Oliver of Baton Rouge. Seventy-five years later, his daughter, Martha Gere Bissell, donated the card photographs to the Northampton Historical Society (now Historic Northampton). In 2014, historian Bruce Laurie opened an envelope containing the photographs and immediately recognized two images from the Harper's Weekly article. Dr. Laurie's research into the story revealed by card photographs is paired with photographer Stan Sherer's large-scale photographs of the original 1863 cartes-de-visite.
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. The exhibition is held 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.
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.
Please note that exhibitions are inaccessible while Programs in the Damon Education Center are in session.