This portrait of Henry Highland Garnet… The image of a man is just as important as the message he wishes to convey. If his image isn’t taken seriously, neither will his message.

Henry Highland Garnet was born into slavery on December 23, 1815 and experienced the harsh mistreatment of his people. He witnessed numerous lynchings, assaults , and other acts of around torture done to his family members and friends. From an early age he knew slavery was wrong, and He knew at an early age that the enslavement of African descendents was wrong. His family escaped from slavery, leaving Kent County, Maryland while Garnet was at the age of nine.

So the urgency to aid in the abolishment of slavery was coursing through his veins and permeated through his spirit.

Maryland remained a slave state until the thirteenth amendment. During the time that Garnet’s family escaped, William Spencer—the owner of Henry Highland Garnet— along with other members of the Spencer family and slave catchers, some of whom graduated from Washington College traveled to New York to track down Garnet and his family to bring them back to Maryland.

Garnet, who was no stranger to the woes of slavery and had an emotional attachment to his mission. Black men and women throughout history have been photographed and portraits have illustrated many non-smiling faces. Those faces told stories of the long lineage of pain and struggle that the sons and daughters of Africa had to endure.

Frederick Douglass was a person who was well photographed throughout history. Many, if not all of his images, depicted that same purpose and plight of Henry Highland Garnet, Issac Mason, Hariet Tubman, Philis Wheatly, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and the rest of the historic pantheon of historic Black leaders.

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