WORKED TO THE BONE Brutal reality of slavery in America revealed in shocking pics dating back to the late 1800s as US marks 153rd anniversary of abolition
Among the series of disturbing images is one depicting the horrific scars inflicted on one slave who was freed from a plantation in Louisiana
THESE shocking photographs from more than 150 years ago reveal the brutal reality suffered by slaves in America.
The disturbing snaps resurfaced today, on the 153rd anniversary of the 13th amendment abolishing slavery being signed into law by US President Abraham Lincoln.
This harrowing photograph shows the brutal raised scars inflicted on a slave who was freed from a plantation in LouisianaCredit: Media Drum World
Some of the images and clippings, which date from as far back as the late 1700s, capture pre-abolition slaves picking cotton on a plantation in Georgia.
Another harrowing snap shows the brutal scars inflicted on one slave who was freed from a plantation in Louisiana.
Further images from the collection show several newspaper clippings from the slavery era, including advertisements for the auction of slaves across the US.
One even warns African Americans that law enforcement has the power to return them to their plantations should they escape.
The thirteenth amendment to the US constitution was signed into law by Lincoln on February 1, 1865.
To this day it remains the only ratified amendment to have been signed by a sitting president.
Under the rules of the constitution Lincoln’s signature was not necessary for the passing of the bill, having already been voted on by both Congress and the Senate.
The amendment was passed after a bitter civil war which devastated the country, pitting the pro-slavery Confederate States of America, which included Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky, against the mostly anti-slavery United States of America, which included states such as New York and Illinois.
Lincoln had already signed the emancipation proclamation, freeing all slaves within the Union, in 1863.
But the thirteenth amendment widened its scope to include the whole of America.
Speaking about slavery in a speech in 1864, Lincoln remarked: “Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature -- opposition to it is in his love of justice.”
He continued: “These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.”
He added: “Repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”
The US was one of the last leading Western nations to abolish slavery, and the legacy of this is still felt in the country to this day.
This snap of two child slaves dressed in rags is among those that have resurfaced
Many slaves endured long days and were whipped mercilessly
Joseph Carpenter, an abolitionist who fought to free the slaves, poses with a slave girl
A guard is pictured at a jail for slaves used by the Confederacy during the Civil War
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