Slaves of General Thomas F. Drayton

This photograph, depicting a large group of slaves, was taken by Henry P. Moore at Hilton Head, South Carolina on the seven-hundred-acre Fish Haul Plantation belonging to Thomas Fenwick Drayton. The plantation was largely dedicated to producing cotton, and fifty-two slaves worked and lived there. Moore's photographs from this period document slaves' living quarters and include images of workers ginning and sorting cotton. This image depicts slaves who were in the process of being freed by the federal government.