Three different versions of “The Scourged Back” exist, but they are so similar that they have coalesced in popular memory as a single image. The photographs were taken, likely on two separate days, in Baton Rouge in 1863, attributed to photographers William D. McPherson and A. J. Oliver. The sitter has been most consistently identified as a formerly enslaved man from Louisiana, possibly named Gordon or Peter, who escaped from a nearby plantation and crossed into Union territory. By 1863 this type of action was becoming more commonplace, especially in Louisiana, where enslaved men, women, and children were fleeing to the protection of the Union Army in increasing numbers as part of a mass movement that historian W. E. B. DuBois described as “a general strike.” Many quickly took up support roles and eventually filled the ranks of what would become the United States Colored Troops, representing a surge in fighting power that became critical to US victory.

McPherson and Oliver had been working in Baton Rouge at least since Union occupation in the spring of 1862. The date range of their activity in Louisiana, as well as the subjects, clearly points to their involvement with the US army and the Union cause. HNOC holds a sampling of other images of theirs from the war years, most of which show buildings of the area as well as parts of Civil War campaigns in Baton Rouge and Port Hudson.

Of all McPherson and Oliver’s images, however, “The Scourged Back” had the widest reach, making a powerful impact on the nation’s visual understanding of the first photographed war in the United States. HNOC had sought a copy of this image for years, and in early 2025 we were able to purchase an example. The photograph enriches our holdings related to the Civil War, slavery in America, and photography. HNOC can also put the photograph into local context, as it was made in Louisiana and depicts a former Louisiana resident. This image had a meaningful impact on the American experience of the Civil War and on the abolitionist cause. Over 160 years later, it continues to illustrate with photographic precision the violence and horrors of American chattel slavery.