About: Wilson Chinn

Wilson Chinn (fl. 1863) was an escaped American slave who became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive use of torture received in slavery. The "branded slave" photograph of Chinn, a former slave from Louisiana, with forehead branded with the initials of his owner, Volsey B. Marmillion, wearing a punishment collar and posing with other equipment used to punish slaves, became one of the most widely circulated photos of the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War and remains one of the most famous photos of that era. The New York Times writer Joan Paulson Gage, noted, "The images of Wilson Chinn in chains, like the one of Gordon and his scarred back, are as disturbing today as they were in 1863. They serve as two of the earliest and most dramatic examples o