(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) [Henry P. Moore, photographer.] Enslaved workers on a South Carolina

(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) [Henry P. Moore, photographer.] Enslaved workers on a South Carolina plantation after the owner had fled. Albumen print, 6¼ x 8½ inches, on original plain mount; minor wear before mounting, small area of retouching at upper left, cello tape stain in right margin, pencil notes on verso. [Edisto Island, SC, April or May 1862] A highly detailed image of Black farm workers on the former plantation of James Hopkinson, Edisto Island off South Carolina. The photograph was taken after the December 1861 arrival of Union troops. Hopkinson and other planters had abandoned their plantations to their workers, who remained legally enslaved until the Emancipation Proclamation. Photographer Henry P. Moore of Concord, NH went south with the 3rd New Hampshire Infantry Regiment, and took this photograph while they were stationed on Edisto in April and May 1862. It is also known as "Gwine to the Field." Other examples of this image are held by the Metropolitan Museum and Library of Congress. A cropped and captioned variant appears in Robert Taft's 1938 book Photography and the American Scene, page 198. Provenance: purchased "just south of Philadelphia" in 1995; Swann sale, 6 April 1998, lot 2, to the consignor.