Christine Mohan, Talbot County Public Schools, 7th Grade Social Studies
May 13-14, 2011
Student Learning Objectives: 2.B.1.a. Identify cultural groups within a contemporary world region.
2.A.1.a: Apply understandings of the elements of culture to the studies of modern world regions (USA), such as art and social structures.
Image: A Visit from the Old Mistress, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) Oil on canvas, 1876. Smithsonian American Art Museum
Introduction: Winslow Homer’s A Visit from the Old Mistress conveys the tense and uneasy relationship between Southern African Americans and whites following the Civil War. Homer depicts three former slaves at home in their slave quarters, starting coldly at their former mistress. The painting represents a meeting of two different cultures that are unsure of their “place” in society.
I found it difficult to choose an image from the Civil War because I teach World Cultures and Geography. I decided to choose an image that reflected the culture of the post-Civil War era. I chose this A Visit from the Old Mistress to use in the classroom because I think it will help students to identify the major ethnic groups of America and the tensions that existed between them. Homer’s painting suggests a meeting of two different worlds; two groups of people separated by social class, ethnicity, values, and civil rights. By putting the Old Mistress in the former slave quarters, Homer implies that she is encroaching on the world of former slaves. There is struggle that Homer depicts in this painting; a struggle to define the relationship between black and white; between former slave and former slave owner. The three African American women stare blankly past their former Mistress as she visits them in their old slave quarters.
At the time the image was created, (1876), I think Homer was trying to convey the tension between white plantation owners and former slaves. This is evident through the cold looks the African American women are giving their former mistress. Jim Crow laws had not yet been enacted in the South, and the future of African Americans was uncertain. I think Homer captures this uncertainty. He does this by placing the Mistress in a setting where she looks uncomfortable: in former slave quarters. It is as if the Mistress does not know what to say to them.
The black women in the painting are wearing clothes similar to those they would have worn as house servants during slavery, which suggests these women will never have the true freedom they have recently been granted. Yet Homer also portrays how the relationship between blacks and whites had changed following the Civil War. For example, one African American woman is sitting down with a white woman in the room, which would have been unacceptable during slavery. However, the fact that Homer chose to include a child held by a former slave in the painting is significant. I think the child’s presence represents hope that each future generation of African Americans will progress toward equal protection under the law.
Whether intentional or not, Homer foreshadows the future relationship between whites and blacks in the South. Despite the efforts and progress made toward equality for African Americans during Reconstruction, the vast majority of African Americans remained tied to the land of white southern farmers through the share cropping system. This, coupled with Jim Crow laws, kept many African Americans in a state of “quasi slavery” for almost a hundred years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, I think that this picture illustrates the plight of African Americans following the Civil War. This painting can easily be mistaken for a piece painted in the 1920s, depicting life on a southern plantation.
How I would use this image in the classroom:
I would design a discussion-based lesson around this image. I would first project the painting ask students to look at it for one minute. Then, without providing the name of the painting or the date in which it was painted, I would start with a quick Think-Pair-Share activity based on the following “straight on” questions:
1. What do you see in this painting? (Visual observations only)
2. Where do you think they are located?
3. What kinds of clothes are the people in the painting wearing?
4. What do the clothes the women wear tell you about who these people are?
5. What can their clothes tell you about when this was painted?
6. What questions do you have about this painting?
I would then reveal the date, name of the painter, and have students read a brief background of the Reconstruction Era and of Winslow Homer, (in pairs, independently, or as a whole class reading activity), so that students can develop a basic understanding of Homer’s motivations and intentions. I would then call on four volunteers to “bring the painting to life” via “Tableau Vivant Nouveau.” In this activity the students would act out the scene in the painting, holding the same poses as the women from A Visit from the old mistress. As the students hold the pose, recreating the same facial expressions as the ones in the painting, I would ask the class the following questions:
1. What new information can we gain from the painting by seeing people act it out?
2. How does acting out a painting help to bring it to life?
Next, keeping the image posted on the board, I would have students engage in another Think-Pair-Share, but answer more in depth, analysis questions:
1. What ethnic groups are represented in the painting?
2. What does this painting tell you about race relations in the United States following the Civil War?
3. What do you think is Homer’s message in this painting?
4. What does this painting tell you about the culture and social status of the different groups presented?
Integrating Technology
The final, culminating activity would be for students, in groups of two or three, to use computers to recreate Homer’s painting using Comic Life Software. The assignment would require students to illustrate an interaction between white Americans and African Americans in a modern setting. They would illustrate the difference in culture using different clothing, and other cultural symbols. Students would then be required to insert word or thought bubbles with things they think each person in the comic strip might say. The thought or word bubbles must reflect race relations between white and African Americans in today’s society. Students would then compare their finished product with Homer’s painting. They would be asked:
1. How is your comic strip similar to Homers? How is it different?
2. How do the differences between your comic strip and Homer’s painting reflect the progression on race relations in the United States since 1876?
