Slave Pen, Alexandria, Virginia 1862

This photograph titled "Slave Pen, Alexandria, Virginia" was created by William R. Pywell, sometime in the mid-19th century. It depicts the building of Price, Birch & Co., a company notorious for trading enslaved people. Pywell’s image offers a stark look at the institutions of slavery in the United States. Alexandria, Virginia, was a major hub in the domestic slave trade, and this photograph serves as a visual record of that history. The building itself, with its barred windows and imposing facade, speaks volumes about the dehumanization inherent in the system of slavery. Note that while the image is of the building, it is also an image *of* the street itself, the trees which line the street, and the picket fences which attempt to create a domestic idyll, all while it functions as a space of unfathomable violence. To understand this image fully, we must turn to historical archives, census records, and narratives of enslaved people to unpack the complex social, economic, and political forces that shaped the institution of slavery and, in turn, this photograph. This image, therefore, stands as a reminder of the power of art to confront and challenge the social norms of its time.