The Princess Madia
Princess Madia was a captive on the Wildfire, an American slave ship captured by the U.S. Navy in 1860. Originally from the Kwanza North region, Madia was called princess by the Wildfire's crew because of her dignified personal appearance and the deference that she received from some of the captured slaves. The original 1860 photograph, by an unidentified photographer, from which the Harper's image was taken, is published in Ellen Dugan, ed., Picturing the South, 1860 to the Present (San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1996, p. 30) with a companion image showing Madia, nude from the waist up and displaying her country marks (i.e., scarification patterns) in her abdominal area. The photographs are held by a private collector, but neither is identified in the Dugan volume. See image E027 in relation to the Wildfire. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization was an American political magazine based in New York City and published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916. It featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects and humor, alongside illustrations. It covered the American Civil War extensively, including many illustrations of events from the war.
Image Title
The Princess Madia
RegID
SI-OB-533
Date
1860
Title
The Princess Madia
Source
Harper's Weekly (June 2, 1860), p. 345.
Language
English
Item sets
Portraits & Illustrations of Individuals
Spatial Coverage
Africa--West Central North
Reproduced In
Harper's Weekly (June 2, 1860), p. 345.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
23-Feb-17
Identifier
HW0007