(09) 1850 African Fassena, a Mandingo Carpenter is Enslaved (c. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

This slave daguerreotype, a photograph taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor, was taken by scholar Louis Agassiz, and features the carpenter Fassena. Fassena was from the Mandingo Tribe, and resided at the plantation of Wade Hampton II. The Mandingo are descendants of the ancient Mali Empire, an empire which once occupied western Africa. They were renowned as Muslim traders throughout West Africa. Fassena was abducted from his home in Africa and was forcibly deported to the Americas. He shows the consequences of the cruelty of slavery, as he was forcibly kidnapped and ended up in a foreign land as a slave, away from everything he had ever known, despite his rich heritage.