Augustus Washington

Augustus Washington ( – June 7, 1875) was an American–Liberian photographer and politician. One of the few African American daguerreotypists whose careers have been documented, Washington was born in New Jersey as a free person of color and in 1853 migrated to Liberia, where he later entered politics.

Early life Augustus Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey, as the son of a former slave and a woman who was said to be of South Asian descent. His mother died when he was a child. He studied at Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York, and the Kimball Union Academy, before entering Dartmouth College in 1843. He learned how to make daguerreotypes during his first year to finance his college education, but had to leave Dartmouth in 1844 due to increasing debts.

He moved to Hartford, Connecticut, teaching black students at a local school and opening a Daguerrean studio in 1846.

Move to Liberia Washington made the decision in 1852 to leave his home in Hartford to emigrate to Liberia in West Africa. It took him a year to raise the funds to travel, and he moved in 1853 with his wife, Cordelia, and their two small children. He wanted to move to Liberia to join thousands of other African Americans in leaving the United States to start a new free black nation in Africa where they would no longer be discriminated against and would enjoy equal rights. The American Colonization Society started the process of moving African Americans to Liberia to help fund the colony. While Washington's intentions were to pave the way for a colony made by and for African Americans, the whole movement was still framed within a colonial context and Washington himself viewed the native Africans who were already living in Liberia as "heathen inhabitants" who would appreciate the African-American colonizers for bringing with them civilization and Western religion. and also traveled to the neighboring countries Sierra Leone, Gambia and Senegal. His daguerreotypes came at a vital moment for the Liberian nation as they were a visible way to document the progress of the colony not only for the Liberians but also to create an image of the colony for Western audiences. Many of his daguerreotypes were even commissioned by the American Colonization Society to provide images that would be vital for presenting an idealized image of the nation to the men and women in the United States weighing the merits of recolonization in Africa. He died in Monrovia in 1875.

Works Washington is best known for a daguerreotype of John Brown.