Riversdale House Museum Unveils First Portrait of Enslaved Resident

Courtesy of Prince George's County

Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park unveiled its first portrait of an enslaved resident, the latest step in the museum’s new mission to deal more directly with the legacy of slavery.

As part of a recent celebration of Maryland Emancipation Day, the museum publicly showed a portrait of Adam Francis Plummer, whose personal journal is an important part of the post-Civil War historical record.

The portrait is a mosaic by Chanel Compton, a former executive director of the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center now working in Annapolis.

The mosaic, which shows Plummer in a blue suit and tie, fits with her other works, which often use the same technique to create portraits of American historical figures such as Nat Turner and Martin Luther King Jr.

It is the first time that a portrait of an enslaved person is being permanently displayed at a place of enslavement in Prince George’s County.

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