Runaway slave Sojourner Truth gained fame in the nineteenth century as an abolitionist; feminist; and orator and earned a living partly by selling photographic carte de visite portraits of herself at lectures and by mail. Cartes de visite; similar in format to calling cards; were relatively inexpensive collectibles that quickly became a new mode of mass communication. Despite being illiterate; Truth copyrighted her photographs in her name and added the caption ldquo;I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance. Sojourner Truth.rdquo;Featuring the largest collection of Truthrsquo;s photographs ever published; Enduring Truths is the first book to explore how she used her image; the press; the postal service; and copyright laws to support her activism and herself. Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby establishes a range of important contexts for Truthrsquo;s portraits; including the strategic role of photography and copyright for an illiterate former slave; the shared politics of Truthrsquo;s cartes de visite and federal banknotes; which were both created to fund the Union cause; and the ways that photochemical limitations complicated the portrayal of different skin tones. Insightful and powerful; Enduring Truths shows how Truth made her photographic portrait worth money in order to end slaverymdash;and also became the strategic author of her public self.
2013-01-23 2013-01-23File Name: B010TYXZO4
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