North Dorchester High School
Picturing the Past
Reconstruction & Beyond- What does the art say?
I will use 3 great art pieces from the post civil war era to depict the shifting views of civil rights post the civil war to the dawn of the 20th century. Each piece will highlight a changing view of civil right in the post civil war era. Student will be ordered to find what historical events transpired near when the art work was done that influenced it, and made to analyze each piece listing observations and inferences. For my lower classes I would provide the historical events and the picture “tableau” activity would be used (where students voice the characters in the artwork) to enrich and enliven the objective.
Image 1: Thomas Kelly after James C. Beard, The 15th Amendment. Celebrated May 19th 1870. New York: 1870
The first image shows the celebration of the passing of the 15th amendment in Baltimore, md along with scenes of African Americans participating in society in positive and equal ways. The 15th amendment explicitly gave equal voting rights to any American born citizen. Reconstruction programs like the freedman’s bureau were in full swing and the country was focused on healing from its cataclysm. And since reconstruction could still go either way in 1869-1870 inferences on equality and a hopeful, positive minded civil rights message would be discussed.
Image 2: Winslow Homer, A Visit from the Old Mistress, 1876, oil on canvas, Smithsonian Art Museum
Winslow Homer’s image is a good contrast to the previous image. Much darker, more sullen and with a less obvious message. In 1876 reconstruction has taken a turn for the worse. The financial panic of 1873 and scandal in his cabinet hurt the republican politically and reconstruction as a national focus waned. By 1876 southern minded democrats in their crusade to save the south from republican rule had taken control of all but 3 southern legislatures. Soon what little federal troops that remained would be withdrawn in the compromise of 1877 ushers in the complete failure of reconstruction and almost another century for civil rights to be achieved. Homer’s image can be viewed to represent this shift. With the stern look of the forefront African American towards the erect and imperious Old Mistress. The ambiguous but guarded look of the mother and the defensive position of the seated African American.
Image 3: Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial, 1897, National Gallery of Art
The last art piece was worked on during a tome of segregation as tradition, or “de-facto segregation”. This dilemma was made legal and underscored by the horrendous separate but equal clause of the Plessy vs. Fergusson case in 1896, just 1 year before Saint-Gaudens’ striking memorial was unveiled in Boston. Inferences made here by students are likely to be more subjective. Notes on the physical and forefront separation and height of Shaw in relation to his soldiers could be attributed to mean segregation. Furthermore, the engraving at the bottom of the memorial only commemorated Shaw, with no mention of the 54th Massachusetts. This speaks volumes of the time in which it was commissioned and unveiled. Also the men of the 54th have a forlorn and almost sad posture and expressions. Even the angel sadly shuts her eyes while forwarding them into heaven. All their deaths at the battle of fort Wagner, South Carolina 1863, not quite canonized or meaning what it should until almost a lifetime later with the modern Civil Rights Movement’s completion.
