An enslaved ancestor was among the first photographed and identified by name

Evidence

Papa Renty was one of the first enslaved people to ever be photographed and identified by name and place of birth. This was both overwhelming and emotional for me—it was also historic. This was my bloodline, I thought, and it was ensnared in something both good and bad. How fortunate was I to have a tangible piece of my African ancestry. But this was also my origin story—an image of my enslaved ancestor, depicted in the most objectified and vulnerable way, used as a tool to justify an illegitimate scientific experiment. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 186

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s interest in property law as the afterlife of slavery — the image itself becomes the contested object.
• QUESTION: What makes a photograph of an enslaved person a ‘tangible piece of ancestry’ in a legal sense? The author’s claim that the image is both origin story and objectified tool sets up the ownership question central to her later litigation.