The images captured in 1850 are believed to be the earliest known pictures of Africans who were enslaved during American chattel slavery. The plate daguerreotypes, an early type of photo, are of Renty Taylor and his daughter, Delia.
Both are posed and photographed shirtless. Until recently, these full-front nude images were the private property of Harvard University.
“The plate daguerreotypes of Renty and Delia (alongside those seized during the same photographic sessions from other enslaved people—Drana, Alfred, Jack, George Fassensa, and Jem) are unlike other daguerreotypes commissioned by enslavers, which aimed to portray slavery as a paternalistic and benevolent form of white rule,” Ariella Aisha Azoulay wrote in “The Captive Photograph” for the Boston Review. “These images had a different purpose: to capture in silver plates the inherent ‘truth’ of white superiority. Stripping Renty, Delia, and others bare in front of the camera was part of Agassiz and his collaborators’ plan: to let what they considered the naked truth of Black inferiority imprint itself directly from the bodies to the photographic plate, without the interference of clothing or other props that were frequently used in photographers’ studios.”
A lawsuit was filed by Tamara Lanier for “wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation” of images she says are of her great-great-great-grandfather. Her suit urges the university to acknowledge her ancestry, relinquish the photos immediately and pay an unspecified amount in damages.
What kind of ownership claim could Harvard make of Renty Taylor, who was forced to submit to an image of his enslavement? Should “the white gaze” be privileged and thereby prevent his family from seeing him as their relative?
The photos were commissioned by Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-born American biologist who taught at Harvard. He saw the father and daughter while “touring” plantations. Agassiz was in search of “pure” Africans who were enslaved, who would support his polygenic theories on racial difference and in turn, chattel slavery in the United States, according to the lawsuit.
“To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,” the suit says. “The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.”
The lawsuit also claims Harvard University exploited Renty’s image during a conference in 2017 themed “Universities and Slavery: Bound by History,” among other instances. The suit further alleges the Ivy League school profited from the photos, including a licensing fee for reproduction of the images as well as from a book titled “From Site to Sight: Anthropology, Photography, and the Power of Imagery.”
But African Americans just need to “get over slavery,” right? Persons have argued we should simply move past its historical and ongoing impact.
This position suggests there is no need to discuss its lingering social and economic implications, psychological and emotional trauma, the resulting systemic and structural racism as well as the absence of accountability and centuries-long denial of reparations. Also, what of Harvard’s need to atone for slavery?
“This case is important because it will test the moral climate of this country and force this country to reckon with its long history of racism,” Lanier said during a news conference outside the Harvard Club of New York City.
“Renty is 169 years a slave by our calculation,” Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney and one of Lanier’s lawyers, said in an interview. “How long will it be before Harvard finally frees Renty?”
Last month, Harvard University relinquished the 175-year-old photographs as part of a settlement from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, where they were originally taken.
“This is a moment in history where the sons and daughters of stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightfully proclaim a victory for reparations,” Lanier said. “This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.”
With Renty Taylor’s image now in the hands of members of the African American community, Harvard is forced to get the picture.