Seated with flowers in a her left hand, dark-colored shoes on feet resting on a stool, and wearing a dark-colored dressed. Text at the bottom of picture reads: Redeemed in Virginia by Catherine S. Lawrence. Baptized in Brooklyn….by Henry Ward Beecher, May, 1863. Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a Redeemed Slave Child, 5 years of age.

Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a Redeemed Slave Child, 5 years of age. Creation: 1863. Photographer: Renowden. Collection: Cartes de visitie. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Fanny Ayres Lawrence

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Fanny Ayres Lawrence also known as Fanny:

Born in 1858 in Virginia to Mary Fletcher and enslaver Charles Rufus Ayres; named Fanny Virginia Casseopia Lawrence at her baptism in 1863. Youngest of three daughters, escaped with her mother, sisters, and other slaves in 1862 from Rectortown to Fort Williams, a Union Army citadel in Virginia. Adopted by Catherine Lawrence from New York; sang at church gatherings and Sunday schools to raise funds for her education. Most photographed child slave in history. Died years before the adoptive mother.

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