Photography of Enslaved Folks in Tennessee

By Tranae’ Chatman, MBA

The oldest photos within the museum’s assortment have been created between the politically turbulent a long time between 1850 and 1900. These few photos supply solely a glimpse into the advanced lives of the Tennesseans who lived throughout this era. The first photographers in Tennessee documented an antebellum state the place slavery affected the tradition and the financial system.  As the Civil War threatened to alter the social order, photographers documented Black Tennesseans’ journey to freedom and self-expression. Although photos are worthwhile assets for decoding social historical past, the attitude from which we view Tennessee’s earliest images was decided by those that had the financial energy to decide on which photos have been created. Researchers of early pictures should contemplate what motivated photographers and their patrons to create photos and what particulars they could have not noted, particularly because it pertains to slavery.

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A handwritten word on the within of this body identifies the newborn as “Miss Alberta Alice” and notes that the picture was “taken when she was thirteen months old.” The identities of the girl holding Alberta and the kid behind her are unknown.

(Alberta Alice, Photographer Unknown, 1860s-1870s, tintype, 80.92.14.27)

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The obscure documentation of the identities of enslaved folks (or the outright lack thereof) has lengthy pissed off descendants and researchers. Over 200,000 folks have been enslaved in Tennessee initially of the Civil War however census and property information together with slave inventories listing them anonymously by intercourse and age solely. Photographs of enslaved individuals are uncommon, and pictures of recognized enslaved individuals are much more uncommon. Limits positioned on their civil liberties prevented enslaved folks from commissioning their very own photos and gave their captors the authority to seize their photos at will. When photos have been produced, the motivations for doing so have been assorted.

It is feasible that pictures was utilized by slaveholders as type of proof of possession. By 1860, the wealthiest slaveowners had created authorized and financial methods that protected their monetary investments in enslaved folks. Federal laws just like the Fugitive Slave Act supplied recourse to the enslaver when enslaved folks escaped bondage. Insurance corporations supplied insurance policies, to not fund funerals or memorial companies for enslaved folks, however to stability the underside line of their enslaver’s labor prices within the occasion of loss or harm. In 1850, a Nashville newspaper revealed a suggestion from a reader encouraging slaveowners to create images of their grownup slaves to assist establish and reclaim people who had run away.

Although it’s unclear to what extent Tennessee slaveowners took the newspaper’s recommendation, one artifact within the museum’s assortment might present proof of a minimum of one try to take action. In the case of “Lucy”, her image and her 1859 bill of sale were rediscovered together. According to a note written on the back of the bill of sale, Lucy’s collection was found “back at the old home place in a chest of memories” in 1901. For over 150 years, Lucy’s photograph and her bill of sale have been kept together.  

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Adding to her rarity, Lucy’s image was captured on an ambrotype—an early form of photography that created images on fragile glass plates.

(Bill of Sale note, 1901, Tennessee State Museum, 2022.17.2) (Lucy, Photographer unknown, Ambrotype, 2022.17.1)

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In the years after the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers used photography to circulate stories romanticizing the antebellum South and the enslavement of African American people. These stories usually focused on enslaved people’s loyalty and their services to their enslavers.

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(Matilda Franklin, 1850-1870, Photographer Unknown, Tennessee State Museum 2025.10)

Courtesy of Sandra Shelton and the family of Frank Haynie Saunderson.

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For example, Matilda Franklin is depicted here in a cased tintype. Matilda was one of Martha Franklin Armfield’s enslaved personal servants; she continued to work for Martha after the Civil War. According to family oral history Martha’s father, John Franklin, presented Matilda to her in 1834 as a wedding gift when she married her uncle’s business partner, John Armfield. Isaac Franklin and John Armfield were the co-owners of one of the nation’s most lucrative slave trading firms. As a testament to their wealth, Isaac Franklin’s widow, Adelicia Hayes, inherited several thousand acres of land across three states and a total of 750 slaves after his untimely death in 1846. From this inheritance, she and her second husband constructed Belmont Mansion.

Photographs of Matilda and her obituary were preserved by the descendants of the Franklin family. The obituary reveals clues about Martha’s relationship to Matilda. On March 3, 1878, Matilda’s death was announced in The Tennessean in a detailed tribute. She is described in the article as the “life-long, faithful and affectionate servant” of Martha Armfield and as a devoted member of Christ Church in Nashville. The writer praises Matilda’s behavior as “modest and correct” and describes her “exemplary life and triumphant death” as a bright example for all. The article suggests that in her final days, she was cared for by her former enslavers and personally requested to be buried “in her old mistresses’ graveyard.”

In a similar case, Alfred Jackson, enslaved body servant of former president Andrew Jackson, sat for the photograph below after Emancipation. After the Civil War, Alfred Jackson remained at The Hermitage as a tenant farmer and later became a tour guide when the property became a museum. His image was reproduced and sold by the Thuss Studio as a souvenir for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. On the back of this card, Sarah Fiske noted that Alfred Jackson gave her a tour of the Hermitage in 1897 when he was 93 years old. After his death, Alfred was buried at The Hermitage near President Jackson’s tomb.

In Exposing Slavery: Photography, Human Bondage, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America, Mathew Fox-Amato argues that photography’s rise in popularity intersected with debates about race to create a new culture of visual discourse in America. As photography became more accessible, individuals curated and preserved their own private collections that covertly reflected their own interests. In this case of Lucy, Matilda Franklin, and Alfred Jackson, their rare depictions were preserved not by their own families, but by patrons who were interested in archiving their stories for varying and sometimes vague reasons.

The museum’s collection of photographs, which includes images of enslaved individuals, is currently on display in Photography in Tennessee: Early Studios in the Medium’s First Century. The show runs until November 9, 2025. Visitors are encouraged to reflect upon how photographs reflect the beliefs of their creators and how images influence our perception of the past.