Virginia McGee Richards Documents Black Resistance Along Southern Waterway in New MIT Press Book
Virginia McGee Richards will release her book, "The Inner Passage," in April 2026 through MIT Press, distributed by Penguin Random House. The work features 60 photographs created using the wet plate collodion process, highlighting the canals built by enslaved Black men in the 17th and 18th centuries for shipping and plantation economies. These waterways later became escape routes for enslaved individuals heading to Spanish Florida. The book includes portraits of descendants like Kathy Fludd Holmes and Micah John LaRoche III, with an introduction by Imani Perry and a foreword by James Estrin.
Key facts
- Book 'The Inner Passage' published by MIT Press, distributed by Penguin Random House, release April 2026.
- Richards uses wet plate collodion process for 60 photographs.
- Canals built by enslaved Black men in 17th and 18th centuries for shipping and plantation economies.
- Waterways later used by enslaved people seeking freedom in Spanish Florida.
- Includes portraits of descendants like Kathy Fludd Holmes and Micah John LaRoche III.
- Introduction by Imani Perry, foreword by James Estrin.
- Richards is a former environmental lawyer at EPA and Department of Justice.
- Richards first learned of the Inner Passage while open-water swimming in New Cut canal.
Entities
Artists
- Virginia McGee Richards
- Imani Perry
- James Estrin
- Kathy Fludd Holmes
- Micah John LaRoche III
- Vennie Deas Moore
- Eliza Pinckney Lucas
- Alayna N. Pernell
Institutions
- MIT Press
- Penguin Random House
- EPA
- Department of Justice
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Museum of Contemporary Photography
- Illinois State Museum
- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Lenscratch
- Silver Eye Center of Photography
- Photolucida
- FLXST Contemporary
- Refraction Gallery
- JKC Gallery
- RUSCHWOMAN Gallery
- Colorado Photographic Arts Center
- Griffin Museum of Photography
Locations
- South Carolina Lowcountry
- Sea Islands
- Charleston
- Wadmalaw Island
- James Island
- New Cut canal
- Stono River
- Ashley River
- Elliott's Cut
- Wappoo Cut
- Combahee River
- Cooper River
- Hyde Park Plantation
- Edisto
- Awendaw
- Sandy Island
- Port Royal
- Colleton County
- North Carolina
- United States
- Spanish Florida