Faces of emancipation: 1860 to 1880

Envisioning Emancipation/Library of Congress

Taken between 1860 and 1880, these images of emancipated African Americans show newly freed blacks in elegant dress, looking poised and confident. Many of the following photographs have never been seen by the public. This picture was taken in Savannah, Ga.

Some of the revealing portraits were released as part of a book called "Envisioning Emancipation.". Renowned photographic historian Deborah Willis and historian of slavery Barbara Krauthamer collected more than 150 photographs from the the 1850s through the 1930s for the book.

More than a thousand photos from the time period were discovered in archives and libraries across the country like the Schomburg Research Center in Harlem, New York. Nearly all the photographs were taken by black photographers.

Posing in uniform was an especially popular theme. "Look at them they are so dignified," Krauthamer told CBS Evening News. "The are the epitome of manhood, of patriotism and honor."

This image shows Booker T. Washington, an African-American education, speaker and advisor to several Republican presidents.

This picture shows women's rights activist and abolitionist Isabella Baumfree, better known as Sojourner Truth.

Susie King Taylor

Benjamin Pap Singleton

Montana Mason

In family photographs, the various skin complexions of the children exposed one of slavery's most disturbing legacies. The photographs represented the sexual abuse of enslaved women by their slave masters and other slave holders in the South.