In 1819, Peale (whose son Raphaelle had painted Absalom Jones in 1810) went to Washington to record the likenesses of distinguished Americans; while there he heard about an old African man, Yarrow ...

Yarrow Mamout was something of a local celebrity in early 19th-century Georgetown. Taken from Africa in 1752 and sold into slavery, he eventually gained his freedom and made himself into a ...

First, in 1819, he was painted by Charles Willson Peale, who also painted George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Peale’s stately image of Yarrow with a whimsical wise half ...