http://daguerre.org/gallery/mhs/6mhs.html
"This Daguerreotype was taken by Southworth Aug. 1845 it is a copy of Captain Jonathan Walker's hand as branded by the U.S. Marshall of the Dist. of Florida for having helped 7 men to obtain 'Life Liberty, and Happiness.'(There does seem to have been a tradition of using daguerreotype to represent
abolitionists, and one of the best-known examples was the African American
photographer Augustus Washington's portrait of John Brown. Another intriguing
example, and one that has close analogies with the Met's object, is the
celebrated and compelling daguerreotype of abolitionist Captain John Walker's
hand, known as "The Branded Hand" http://daguerre.org/gallery/mhs/6mhs.html)
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