Joined
·
10,007 Posts
OK, this picture is owned by the Kansas State Historical Society and has been used in several books and by Ken Burns on his series "The West" for PBS.
As a quick background, after the Civil War many freed slaves moved west to homestead free land just like other groups did. Many settled in Kansas early on and somehow got the name "Exodusters."
This picture is said to be of a group of Exodusters sitting on a levee waiting for a steam boat to take the to Kansas.
Well I ain't no graduate of the US Army Corps of Engineers so I ain't the smartest guy about levees, but I really don't think the water is supposed to be on both of a levee. Also on the right hand side of the photo, you can see a fence line and a house in the water. On the left hand side there are trees in the water so this is not the normal channel of the river either.
To the right of the picture there is a large white object laying on a chuck of picket fence, it appears to be a dead body sewn in canvas, a common way of burying people when no regular casket was available.
I think these folks are waiting for a boat, but I don't think Kansas is on their mind right now.
The quality is not as good as many of the photos I have posted, it is from a print rather than a negative and I had to scan it from a book because it don't seem to be on-line yet.
As a quick background, after the Civil War many freed slaves moved west to homestead free land just like other groups did. Many settled in Kansas early on and somehow got the name "Exodusters."
This picture is said to be of a group of Exodusters sitting on a levee waiting for a steam boat to take the to Kansas.
Well I ain't no graduate of the US Army Corps of Engineers so I ain't the smartest guy about levees, but I really don't think the water is supposed to be on both of a levee. Also on the right hand side of the photo, you can see a fence line and a house in the water. On the left hand side there are trees in the water so this is not the normal channel of the river either.
To the right of the picture there is a large white object laying on a chuck of picket fence, it appears to be a dead body sewn in canvas, a common way of burying people when no regular casket was available.
I think these folks are waiting for a boat, but I don't think Kansas is on their mind right now.
The quality is not as good as many of the photos I have posted, it is from a print rather than a negative and I had to scan it from a book because it don't seem to be on-line yet.
