Posted 10 years ago
whitman75
(349 items)
This is a rare photo of what looks like a Cabinet Card of a Slave Owner with her Servants with the back of the card being Named and Numbered with their work duties. This card does have corner damage an I think is from South Africa since I found this amongst other cabinet Cards from South Africa. The hands of the poor people look to have ropes around their wrist. These are sad images to display but show how life was tough and disparaging for these people.
Neat image.
Servants, yes-- slaves, NO. SA was part of the British Empire and as such slavery was abolished in the first half of the 19th century (not sure of exact year).
Nonetheless, I would suspect life was hard for them.
The image looks to date from about the 1880s- 90s.
scott
"Ropes"?!! Those are simple native bracelets. "If you aren't helping, - you must be part of the problem".
Myself couldn't tell Blunder first thing that came to mind. I'm not an expert on tribal gear or jewelry. Thanks for the helpful information.
The 2 girls in front look like twins :-) Nice photo of history and she must have cared about her servants to have a photo with them . The girls and young man look so young ,
it could be a status thing to have so many 'servants'. i get a much more sinister feeling from this pic. even if they are 'servants', i doubt they were treated much better than slaves. but what do i know?
Obviously not much ho2. I've lived it & they are part of family & they consider you part of their's. There is strong bonding & love that the ignorant can never understand but jump to the forefront to criticize as "slavery". Those "servants" would demand to be 1st in line to slap those peoples' faces. Wasted words on the ignorant!