‘Scourged Back’ exposed the horror of slavery. Now it’s embroiled in America’s censorship debate

Depicting a crisscross of welts and scars streaked across the body of a formerly enslaved Louisiana man, “Scourged Back” is one of the 19th century’s defining photographs. The image was so widely circulated in America during the Civil War that it reshaped the abolitionist cause by laying bare the ab...

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