by
Rinny
Earlier, this year we shared 10 stunning photos of black women in the Victorian era, and now we have more stunning images to share! Many of these photos are the work of a photographer named of Alvan S. Harper. Harper’s photos featured many teachers, business owners and leaders from a then burgeoning black community in Tallahassee, Fl.
In the last decades of the 19th Century, white Southern society began to pass laws to reverse the gains African Americans made during Reconstruction. By 1900, the Age of Jim Crow (legal segregation) was in full swing. Yet as these images taken by Tallahassee photographer Alvan S. Harper reveal, many African Americans were able to prosper despite the social and legal restrictions they faced.
Check out the stunning images below.
Share your thoughts on the photos below!
57 Responses
This is amazing! I went to college in Tallahassee in the 1980s – and found it small and all most “backwoods” compared to Miami – where I was from. So I find photos like this – speaking of a thriving sophisticated African-American community 100 years before I was in Tallahassee – dumbfounding. Below are related excerpts from Wikipedia related to the historically and still today predominately black college in Tallahassee started in Victorian times – and perhaps in some way – the photos are related to the early days of the college. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_A%26M_University
I plan to bookmark this and share it –
I also recommend going to his Wikipedia page to see some interesting photos of blacks and whites together.
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The women look soo pretty. I feel like these types of images are hard to find.
Thanks for sharing these rare and beautiful photos!
Love these photos! Sharing with grandkids to show them we have always been part of this world.
Very Beautiful visual histories of women of the diaspora! They are so regal for what they had to endure in this world not only in America but globally. White Supremacy (White Fragility) was/is an interconnected system of policies, laws, institutions, ideologies, within a collusion of not only states but nations. With that said, American history is not what we’ve been told in school and universities! New research proves many “European” “white” Indentured Servants of the 1700s and early 1800s where “Black” people coming into America with a highly skilled labor pool who were later reclassified as Negros, Colored and thus African American by law! To better understand and inner stand OUR American Culture and history we have to reposition our mind and remember that WE were (are) autochthonic indigenous people on all 4 corners of this globe (planet) not simply from out of Africa! Out of Africa propaganda was instituted by “White” anthropologists — during land grabs (redistribution of resources /wealth), federal and state laws and policies, and institutionalized miseducation, etc. (Like Native Americans to mission schools scenario).
For a broader innerstanding; East African Ethiopian Lucy might be 3.2 million years, factor in the oldest DNA found in South Carolina, Albert Perry at 340,000 YEARS OLD, while the Lady of Guadeloupe found in the Caribbean is 28 MILLION YEARS OLD. Further findings prove that a Chunk of Africa found underneath the Southeastern US states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, etc — 250 MILLION YEARS OLD! This makes us a very ancient people! Respectfully the Atlantic Slave Trade including immigration and migration must be revisited with an eye of research that is not biased in racism because most historical data and truths have been purposefully suppressed from public view and scholastic mainstream academia. Hence our loss of identity and spiritual connection to this planet on a larger global level!
These are gorgeous women of color – copper colored, brown, black skin tones from various tribal lineages — making up south, central, North America continents, European countries, AND the African continent and her countries (let alone South Pacific and Asian countries)! This may be a lot to wrap our heads around but do the research and you’ll find your face on EVERY INCH OF THIS GLOBE and as progenitors of great civilization. As legitimate (or not) the Ancestry and 23andMe point out we have DNA from all over the world. (Don’t take my word for it— search and research yourself!) I personally recognize ‘all of that’ as having one common denominator — our autochthonous Mitochondrial DNA! These women represent this lineage (Mitochondrial dna) and I honor them- all! ♥
A few citations:
Barras, C. (2013.). The father of all men is 340,000 years old. Retrieved from
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23240-the-father-of-all-men-is-340000-years-old/
Fitzpatrick-Matthews , K. (2015, April 11). The Lady of Guadeloupe: A Miocene Homo sapiens? Retrieved from https://badarchaeology.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/the-lady-of-guadeloupe-a-miocene-homo-sapiens/
Kumar, M. (2014, May 15). DNA From 12,000-Year-Old Skeleton Helps Answer the Question: Who Were the First Americans? Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dna-12000-year-old-skeleton-helps-answer-question-who-were-first-americans-180951469/
News, D. (2015, January 31). Chunk of Africa found underneath Southeastern US. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/science/chunk-of-africa-found-underneath-southeastern-us
Stunning photos,I love them
I love the pictures, such elegance is reflected in their headdress and posture
Love the Beautiful pictures
Fabulously beautiful black queens
Wonderful! So great to see us chronicled during this era. Thank you.
I just loved it an more,, wonderful in deed.
commet by Mrs Deborah Lynn Sockwell Davenport Jones-Black Sister
Loved the pictures which showed that despite that era and the Jim Crow climate, these Black women looked classy and held their heads up with dignity. So happy that they wren’t “mammified” to that typical stereotype of that time. I also Like that they weren’t “weaved up”.
Their names are Maria, Victoria, Diamond, Stephanie, Jane. . . Does that help? You know people can see other as humans without knowing their names, right? I see nameless white Victorians in photos all the time and no one questions their personhood.
I did not know that about the renting of clothes. Interesting.
These are Amazing Thank you so much for these pictures are everything!. I have to post it in my FB POC Victorian Fashion Community
Community.https://www.facebook.com/MaisondeChocolate/
Awesome set of pictures. Seemed like all of the ladies were middle or upper class? No laborers or working women took photos?
Two comments: It would have been nice to have names for these beautiful ladies; not that they aren’t people of dignity, but knowing names would enhance their personhood for us. Also: given financial conditions of the times, it may be that several of these women didn’t actually own the clothes they wear, but rather rented them for the photo shoot (something done by many people then).
So beautiful
These women exhude a lot of dignity. Love the Victorian-clothing style.
Beautiful..
To think about the harsh realities of life for black women back then is mind-blowing. And for them to show so much dignity, is astounding.
I love how they are holding their head up in confidence.
yo…… some of these women look like my neighbors’ mamas
All of these Women are absolutely gorgeous!
Another thing I’ve noticed with this series of throwback photos…The Black women are very slim and trim with tiny waists….I mention this because in this modern day whenever the obesity/Black womens weight issue is raised someone always mention how Black women are naturally bigger than other groups of women…it’s soo not true
The woman 10th from the bottom is not slim, she’s full figured….also all the women are not slim, they vary in sizes….but I guess if you’re trying to prove a non existent point you will see what you want to see.
I really wasn’t trying to make a point(negative or otherwise)…but come on….1 woman in the series might have been a little more full figured but even she didn’t come close to the proportions/weight I see on a lot of modern day Black women with a lot more advantages in every way….it is so OBVIOUS.
Some of them were also probably wearing corsets no?
They probably have tiny waists because they were wearing corsets or are otherwise binding their waists, which didn’t go out of fashion until the 1920s, I believe.
True but even in other old photos with obviously no corset wearing the Black women were still overwhelmingly slim and trim and I do get there might be many reasons for this but it is so obvious and striking.
I love the natural hair displayed as well…
Obesity is a problem today, but it doesn’t just affect Black Women…
Beautiful….good to be reminded that no matter what Black women THRIVE.
I can’t express how much I love this pictures. I am definitely sharing this stunning images.
#3 is not an African-American woman. She’s actually a Black Canadian woman. This photo can be found on the Government of Canada’s archive website for photos of a prominent Black Canadian community in Ontario. Please correct the error, bglh! Do a reverse search and you’ll see the young lady lived in Canada. It’s a very important distinction because some would believe black Canadians only came to Canada in the 70s.
Interesting…so where did the Blacks in Canada come from prior to the seventies…I know a lot came from America fleeing slavery but did they come from other areas.
carribean i think.
They came from AMERICA….
The trading of Africans via America and the Caribbean during the slave trade though not a huge population. Migration kicked in during the American revolution and the Underground Railway movement. So there is a definite connection amongst us in the diaspora.
Over 200 years Africans ruled Sicily, and there influence are still seen to this day….
Some were even brought to Canada as slaves (servants) when British settlers came. The number wasn’t LARGE but they still existed. It’s just frustrating because a lot of white Canadians try to erase black history so that we feel “thankful” that we were allowed to immigrate here. We’ve BEEN here, and our multifaceted stories aren’t always known or taught .
Thank you…I didn’t know that about Canadian history. …slavery in Canada…I never would have thought because people fleeing slavery in America thought of Canada as the promised land…thanks again.
It’s a shame that you don’t know the history of the African in the new world…. Some did flee America due to slavery because Canada had already ended slavery earlier. Thus they were a progressive nations…. Slaves also fled to Mexico….. Fyi Mexico also had slaves as well, if you ever vist they have a museum one can tour to learn the history…. Also the prominent Mexican figure who fought in the Mexican Revolution and is depicted in statue, was a black man….. Black people were every where….
You may enjoy Laurence Hill’s Book of Negroes, which was also made into a TV mini-series in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Negroes_%28miniseries%29
It REALLY doesn’t matter. She is still of African descent!
Yes, it DOES matter! Especially when it comes to eraser of ones culture and identity. Stop trying to make every one fit into the American idea of black… it DOES matter.
The American ideal of black is designed by white people… That’s why Black Americans are so confused. Heck they don’t even take pride in their own Black American culture and identity….
I thought there was to be only one unifying idea of black culture. We all are descendants. It’s because we choose to separate and label as this kind of black or that kind of black, that’s why we’ve never been able to truly unify in power and strength. We are all black. Whether born in Africa, Canada, America, the Caribbean. If you want to define yourself look to the source of where or people come from, that’s where you’ll find the truth. We’re descendants of Kings and Queens. They are all beautiful women.
We all are! But distinctions matter when a country’s national identity is posited around white people+everyone else who immigrated. There are black Canadians who can trace their history back FARTHER than white Canadians, yet we are still seen as “other,” in our own country. It matters.
She is still black woman a lot of.African americans fled to Canada escaping slavery and just migrating
Americas stretch from the tip if South America to north Canada and Alaska. So if the woman was from Canada, she’s still a North American of African descent.
Do you know #3’s name if any? She actually looks like me and now that I know she is from Canada (where I’m from) She could be family. 🙂
So stunning,All ofl these women had uniquely strong facial features! Makes me exceptionally proud to be a black woman!
I love the familiarity of their faces.
These women are so beautiful!
Very classy and so inspirational!
Wow! I love these photos. The level of detailing that went into these beautiful garments is nearly mind-boggling. I am so very impressed. And the hairdo were great, too. Thanks for sharing!