Hofstra University Museum: We Hold These Truths...

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©2013 Hofstra University Museum.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Hofstra University Museum.

H o f s t r a U n i v e r s i t y M u s e um

We Hold These Truths ...

April 16-July 26, 2013 Emily Lowe Gallery

Curated collaboratively by Karen T. Albert Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections Hofstra University Museum and Beth E. Levinthal Executive Director Hofstra University Museum

Funding is provided by: National Endowment for the Arts New York Community Bank Foundation This exhibition is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

We Hold These Truths ... written for this publication by Cheryl Finley, Ph.D., associate

During 2013 Hofstra University will present a series of programs, performances and an international conference to commemorate the 150 years that have elapsed, and the progress achieved, since the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.

professor and director of visual studies, Department of the History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University.

Dr. Finley has written and presented extensively on issues of the African American Diaspora in America, as well as having curated exhibitions such as African Diaspora Room for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, PA. This catalog also includes explanatory text

by Karen Albert, statements from several of the featured artists, and written contributions from Dr. Walter O. Evans and Geri E. Solomon, Assistant Dean of Special Collections

The Hofstra University Museum has chosen to memorialize

and University Archivist, Hofstra University Libraries.

this occasion with the original exhibition We Hold These Truths ... curated collaboratively by the Museum’s Associate

Bringing this exhibition to fruition took the better part of three

Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Karen T. Albert, and

years of careful research with requests for loans from major

Executive Director Beth E. Levinthal. The exhibition explores

institutions, artists, collectors and galleries. We thank those

the themes of slavery, abolition, emancipation and freedom

who have provided loans, including ACA Galleries, Vinnie

through works of art by 19th-century artists such as Thomas

Bagwell, Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University,

Nast and John Quincy Adams Ward, a 1924-25 cast bronze

Heckscher Museum of Art, Hofstra University Department

Seated Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, and exemplar works

of Special Collections, Richard Hunt, Kenkeleba Gallery,

of contemporary artists, including Richard Hunt, Glenn Ligon,

National Academy Museum, The Newark Museum, Michael

Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Kara

Rosenfeld Gallery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., and Smithsonian

Walker. The exhibition has been developed to initiate dialogue

American Art Museum. We Hold These Truths ... intertwines

that will underscore and confirm our essential national truths

art and history, providing a valuable gateway for children,

or at times question the progress attained in areas of civil

families, students and adults to gain greater understanding

rights. Through these artists’ eyes and thoughts we challenge

about essential issues of our cultural heritage. We are most

our visitors both onsite and virtual (through this publication)

fortunate to have funders such as the National Endowment for

to reflect upon our collective past and to consider our nation’s

the Arts, the New York Community Bank Foundation, and the

present and future path toward advancing civil rights.

New York State Council on the Arts that support culturally important initiatives. We thank Hofstra University President

The history of slavery is indelibly imprinted upon the fabric of

Stuart Rabinowitz and Provost and Senior Vice President

our nation’s history and to address the realities of our past,

for Academic Affairs Dr. Herman A. Berliner for their ongoing

original resource materials such as slave sale receipts,

support of the Hofstra University Museum and all of its

manumission papers, and objects such as a funereal pin worn

endeavors.

to mourn the death of President Lincoln are also included in this exhibition.

This catalog is intended to serve as one record of the University’s commitment to recognizing the 150th anniversary

Beth E. Levinthal

Executive Director Hofstra University Museum

of the Emancipation Proclamation. We are privileged to include the essay Visual Legacies of Slavery and Emancipation

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Visual Legacies of Slavery and Emancipation

Visual Legacies of Slavery and Emancipation into a conversation about the meaning of slavery and

The history and memory of slavery and emancipation endured in the bodies and lived experiences of both former slaves and the generations of black Americans born in slavery’s wake. The extent and meanings of black people’s freedom, in their daily lives and on the national stage, took shape unevenly, haltingly, and often incompletely.1

emancipation. These conversations, presented as a sort of visual call and response, are reflected in the pairings of works from the past and present and related works on similar themes.

A conversation that probes how we make sense of the legacy of emancipation in historic documents and the artistic imagination is one worth having on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Cause for Celebration Some of the earliest artistic responses to the Emancipation Proclamation were celebratory, if not cautiously optimistic

The 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

about the future. Some chronicled the unfolding meaning of

provides an occasion to reflect on the ways visual artists have

emancipation in popular prints and widely circulated

responded to and envisioned the impact of that life-changing

publications, such as the engravings of Thomas Nast for

declaration on the experience of slavery and the meaning of

Harper’s Weekly, while others sought to capture the moment for

freedom. Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln in the

perpetuity in works of memorial sculpture, as in the works of

midst of the Civil War on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation

John Quincy Adams Ward and Daniel Chester French. In John

Proclamation declared, “All persons held as slaves are, and

Quincy Adams Ward’s bronze The Freedman, a bare-chested

henceforward shall be free.” But what did it mean to be free?

man wearing only a loincloth reflects on the moment of

How would freedom take shape? The careful wording and

freedom. Completed in 1862, Ward’s The Freedman,

conditions of the proclamation and its timing in relationship to

unshackled and looking upward to a brighter future, perhaps

the Civil War is worth noting as we consider how the range of

anticipates the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.

works in We Hold These Truths ... chronicle and reflect on its significance over the years. For, although the Emancipation

Thomas Nast portrays the tenacity and triumph of A Negro

Proclamation gave slaves who sought refuge behind Union

Regiment in Action in a wood engraving published in the

lines a legal claim to freedom, the freedom it promised

March 14, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly. Lincoln added a

required the Union to win the war. Moreover, absent from the

declaration to the final Emancipation Proclamation stating that

proclamation were any instructions or provisions on how

liberated slaves would “be received into the armed services of

formerly enslaved people could make their way into a free

the United States,” which led to the creation of regiments of

world. Questions remained about how newly freed slaves

U.S. Colored Troops. Another engraving by Nast published in

would support themselves or build economic self-sufficiency.

the same issue of Harper’s Weekly, Colored Troops, under

How might families torn apart by slavery become reunited

Colonel Wild, Liberating Slaves in North Carolina, expanded

with loved ones or imagine new communities of their own?

on the subject depicting the liberated as liberators. A noted

When would formerly enslaved people enjoy the full rights of

observer of American life, especially during the Civil War,

citizenship or at least witness a shift in local and national

Thomas Nast was known for his vivid historical tableaux and

power relations, so that they might participate in the political

sweeping narrative vignettes pitting past against present, good

system? In We Hold These Truths ..., we see how both the

over evil, and triumph over tragedy. Such is the case in his

promise and lack of clarity surrounding these issues inspired

celebratory wood engraving The Emancipation of the Negros,

artists of the day and today to question and consider – to enter

January, 1863 – the Past and the Future, published in Harper’s

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Weekly on January 24, 1863. On either side of the central image,

newspapers or posted publicly as broadsides. In Runaways,

Nast pictures the brutalities of slavery, “the past,” against the

Ligon practices what I have theorized as symbolic possession of

hopes for everyday life as free people in “the future.” At the

the past by taking the pervasive emblems and images of the past

center of the engraving, a family is shown rejoicing at the news

and reassigning them new meaning, reordering them, and

of emancipation in the cozy comfort of their sitting room where

reinterpreting their meanings to lend fresh understanding to the

a portrait of Lincoln hangs symbolically over the fireplace.

present in an ongoing process of negotiating identity, memory,

Portraits of Lincoln became ubiquitous during his first and

and history.3 He does this, in the first instance, by reclaiming

second presidential elections, notably due to photographer

some of the iconic images of the abolitionist movement, such as

Mathew Brady’s studio portrait of him, which was reproduced in

the kneeling slave woman by African American engraver Patrick

multiple formats, including the political button, and engraved for

Reason, or the symbols of escape, such as the profile of the male

wide distribution. The Currier and Ives hand-colored lithograph

or female runaway with knapsack in tow, and presents them in a

Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican Candidate for Sixteenth

format similar to the popular runaway ads interspersed with text

President of the United States, 1860, based on Brady’s famous

statements. Referencing the peculiar yet precise statements

studio portrait, remarks on the growing popularity of

written for runaway ads, similar to the one included in the

photography and its essential tie to memory. The relationship

exhibition for “Twenty Dollars Reward,” found in Dunlap and

between photography and memory is further evidenced in the

Claypoole’s American Daily Advertisers, February 9, 1795, he

exhibition by the simple, yet poignant mourning pin made of a

repurposes the runaway ad by enlisting 10 friends to write

small tintype portrait of Lincoln framed in brass with black

imaginary texts describing him. The texts, which reference both

ribbons attached.

physical description and psychological demeanor, such as, “Ran away, Glenn, a black male, 5’8”... Very articulate, seemingly

Self-Determination and Symbolic Possession of the Past

well educated, does not look at you straight in the eye when

Of course, emancipation did not begin with Lincoln’s

talking to you,” provide another layer of analysis by reframing

proclamation. Rather, enslaved people had been escaping to

the iconic images anew while exposing both the malleability of

freedom for centuries, and with the onset of the Civil War, they

language and the fallacy of appearances. Ligon’s Runaways

fled the Confederacy in large numbers to safety behind Union

further relates historically racist ideas about black bodies, and

lines. The theme of self-emancipation and agency is explored in

black males in particular, to the rise of racial profiling at the end

the works of William H. Johnson and Glenn Ligon. In Johnson’s

of the 20th century.

painting Underground Railroad, ca. 1945, he pays tribute to the conductors of the Underground Railroad with more than three

A contemporary of Ligon, Kara Walker also engages symbolic

dozen simply painted bust portraits of the men and women who

possession of the past in both her aesthetic practice and her

risked their lives in the service of freedom. These are

thematic choices. She is best known for her pioneering re-use of

interspersed with images relating to escape, including a running

the silhouette medium, presenting life-size silhouettes in grand

man, as well as representations of the perils of being caught,

tableaux installations of the horrors of the antebellum South. In

depicted by a hanging man. Part of his Fighters for Freedom

Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005, a

series (ca. 1942-1945), Underground Railroad was exhibited

portfolio of 15 offset lithographs with silkscreen, Walker

along with 24 other works at the Harlem Branch of the New

“annotates” the historical plates with blackened silhouette

York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in

figures that cavort, walk and obscure the original image,

Black Culture) during Negro History Week in 1945. With a

overwriting their original intentions with the parts of the

painting such as Three Great Freedom Fighters (picturing

historical narrative that were left out. Like the textual

Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman) alongside

interventions of Ligon’s Runaways, Walker’s overwritten

Nehru and Gandhi, “Johnson saw his Fighters for Freedom

silhouettes perform an oppositional aesthetic, reinterpreting, reimagining and reclaiming the symbols and images of the past.

series as one artist’s contribution to post war peace and understanding,” according to art historian Richard J. Powell.

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Symbolic possession of the past is a key strategy of black artists

Glenn Ligon’s innovative suite of 10 lithographs, Runaways,

and their allies working in the late 20th century and today,

1993, plays on the visual form and language of the ubiquitous

where memory is used as an aesthetic tool and organizing

antebellum advertisements for runaway slaves published in

principle to emphasize recurrent themes that have shaped the

African American experience, notably the meaning of slavery

shapes, forms and objects, a ritualized practice. This aspect of

and promise of emancipation. Such is the case, too, with Willie

her work, visible in Migration: Africa to America II and

Cole’s monumental woodblock print Stowage, 1997. In the

Yesteryear, 2006, adds the element of ritual to our

early 1990s, Cole began making innovative works of art using

understanding of symbolic possession of the past. That is, most

ironing boards and the scorch produced by burning the fabric

artists, like Saar, who revisit certain key themes in African

cover or another surface (paper, canvas or wood) with a hot

American history through the use and reuse of specific

iron. Cole’s earliest works combined the process of assemblage

symbolic images and gestures, emulate if not engage in a

with the medium of printmaking to produce works of art that

ceremonial practice in doing so. For example, the mixed media

vaguely recalled the formal iconography of West African art

assemblage Yesteryear takes a vintage window frame (another

(masks, figurines and shields) and ritual scarification. Yet the

oft used object by Saar) to juxtapose mystical elements (the

symbolic resonance of this work simultaneously referenced the

sun, stars, rising whole and crescent moons), a miniature

branding of slaves, engravings of packed slave ships, and

African mask, a padlock around the central image, and a

menial domestic labor performed by generations of enslaved

hand-painted, early 20th century photograph of black women,

and free black women. In short, Cole’s works bore signs of a

which seems to bring to life the small, yet recognizable imprint

collective black Atlantic memory. In Stowage, the meaning of

of slave bodies excerpted from the slave ship icon below.

the scorch more emphatically refers to the torturous branding of Africans prior to boarding slave ships to mark them for their

Memorials to Emancipation

owners. If we recall that Description of a Slave Ship, produced

As we have seen in the bronze sculpture of The Freedman by

by British abolitionists in 1789 to publicize the atrocities of the

John Quincy Adams Ward, artists were thinking about how the

transatlantic slave trade, was most frequently reproduced as a

moment of freedom for enslaved Africans would be

woodblock print, then Cole’s Stowage, consciously produced in

remembered and celebrated in memorials well before President

the woodcut medium, is a nod, if not an homage, to the slave

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Many of the

ship icon in his choice of medium as well.

ideas for these initial memorial efforts cast in bronze or carved in marble embraced the established modes of imagining and

Even derogatory images from slavery’s past and those

representing free black men and women pioneered by the

stereotypical caricatures introduced during Reconstruction in

abolitionist movement in London as early as 1787. It was in

order to maintain the status quo have served as fodder for the

that year that William Hackwood, a modeler for Josiah

works of contemporary artists in their projects motivated by

Wedgwood, a renowned potter and craftsman as well as a

symbolic possession of the past. As Betye Saar has noted, “In

dedicated abolitionist, designed the seal for the Society for

the late 1960s, I began to collect derogatory images of African

Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.6 Often printed in

Americans, now called Black Collectibles. I felt these images

their correspondence, tracts and broadsides, or published in

were important as documentation of how Whites have

print media, the seal was transformed the following year and

historically perceived African Americans and how we have

modeled as a medallion or cameo to be worn by supporters of

been portrayed as caricatures, as objects, as less-than-human.”4

abolition or encrusted in snuff boxes and other material

She has enlisted these collectibles and their images in some

displays of wealth. The medallion portrays in raised relief a

of her most remarkable mixed media assemblages, notably

shackled, kneeling slave (wearing only a loincloth) with hands

Migration: Africa to America II, 2006. In this two-sided

clasped looking upwards to heaven, surrounded by the phrase,

work, a carved, wooden African ancestral figure is placed

“Am I not a Man and a Brother?” While depicted in chains and

back-to-back with an Aunt Jemima figure sandwiched between

still technically not free, the submissive image of the kneeling

the pointed hull of the slave ship icon and a vintage photograph

slave combined pre-existing imagery of barely clothed

of a nicely dressed black woman. In the shape of a bookend,

kneeling slave figures along with religious and secular beliefs

this mixed media work combines the symbols and images of

in the equality of mankind. As we examine closely the work of

the past to ameliorate, in her words, “the struggle of memory

Ward, both the near nudity and the posture of The Freedman

against the attraction of forgetting.”5 Saar has made use of the

draw upon widely understood conventions of depicting black

figure of the Aunt Jemima, old photographs and the imprint of

subjectivity and the potential for freedom established nearly a

bodies from the slave ship icon repeatedly, to the point of

century before. Moreover, the heroic, nonthreatening

further embedding in her assemblage process of combining

comportment of The Freedman seems to anticipate both the

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This bronze sculpture shows the great orator and self-emancipator gesturing with one arm as if to welcome all who pass his way to a place where freedom of expression and ideas is paramount. unsettled questions of how emancipation would be carried out

two great statesmen ultimately advocated for freedom. Cast in

and the looming brutality of the Reconstruction era waiting in

bronze as a replica of the monumental marble version found at

the wings.

the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Seated Lincoln also

An outline of the kneeling slave cameo is carved on the back of the chair in which Frederick Douglass is seated in Vinnie Bagwell’s Maquette for Frederick Douglass Circle, 2003.7 Now a full-size version of the maquette presides within Hofstra’s Monroe Lecture Center Courtyard on the South Campus. This bronze sculpture shows the great orator and self-emancipator gesturing with one arm as if to welcome all who pass his way to a place where freedom of expression and ideas is paramount. According to Bagwell, who won the University commission in 2007 to conceive of a sculpture that celebrated the achievements of people of color, “Anchored in realism, my style is defined by portraiture, which provides insight into human character and shows a precise articulation of the human spirit.”8 Looking at the intense facial expressions of Douglass, it is clear that Bagwell relied on 19th century photographic portraits of him for her sculpture. Douglass was outspoken about his preference of photography over painting, engraving and sculpture for portraying the “true likeness” of black people. He famously stated about the optics of racism inevitably visible in painted portraits, “Negroes can never have impartial portraits at the hands of white artists. It seems to us next to impossible for white men to take likenesses of black men, without most grossly exaggerating their distinctive

building designed by Henry Bacon styled after a Greek temple replete with ionic columns, friezes and a monumental staircase, the Lincoln Memorial was strategically sited on the National Mall across from the Reflecting Pool in the near distance and in direct line with the Capitol and the houses of Congress on the Hill. Indeed, it stands today not only a memorial to Lincoln and his many achievements, but also, since 1939, it has served as a strategic site for public demonstrations held by African American (and American) freedom and protest groups. It was in that year that opera great Marian Anderson, after having been denied the chance to perform at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington, based on her race, first used the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial to hold her concert. The symbolism of the venue was not lost on anyone, and more people were able to attend her concert due to its out-of-doors, free, public nature. A pivotal moment in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, Marian Anderson’s prescient gesture marked the Lincoln Memorial as a site of memory for the next generation of freedom fighters, notably the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and for many generations since, who have sought to publicly demonstrate peacefully before our nation’s lawmakers.10

features. And the reason is obvious. Artists, like all other white

The popularity of memorials dedicated to great men and great

persons, have adopted a theory respecting the distinctive

moments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave way to

features of Negro physiognomy.” 9

more abstract forms of memorializing slavery and freedom by

Douglass was a proponent of the photograph’s early association with depicting “true pictures of reality.” He understood the mnemonic function of photography and praised its widespread popularity in his seminal “Pictures and Progress” speech of 1863, where he applauded photography’s availability to “even the humblest members of society,” while noting its potential to redefine the stereotypical image of African Americans.

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possesses a sense of openness and understanding. Housed in a

the end of the 20th century. These ideas frequently were conceived as abstract works, such as the Model for Middle Passage Monument, 1987, by Richard Hunt or Lash (Slavery Memorial), 1994-1999, by Howardena Pindell. Commissioned

by African American art collector Walter O. Evans, Hunt’s abstract monument shows the messiness and catastrophe of a shipwrecked slave ship, noting the unevenness in both the meaning and outcome of emancipation. The choice of

In the exhibition, Bagwell’s Maquette for Frederick Douglass

abstraction here as in the mixed media work of Pindell serves

Circle is placed in conversation with Daniel Chester French’s

the dual purpose of questioning the historical meaning of

Seated Lincoln, 1924-25. With this call and response

freedom and understanding the contemporary reality of black

juxtaposition, we could imagine how, in their different ways, the

lives in America. Their works also shift the focus of the

memorial from the individual to the historical moment and

choice, the painted story quilt.11 Deeply embedded in the

highlight its impact on the collective experience. This shift

American craft tradition, the African and African Diaspora

from the individual to the collective is also realized through

textile tradition, and the mythology of the Underground

abstraction and in the case of Pindell, choice of materials.

Railroad, the quilt became a palette on which Ringgold not

Her mixed media painting features the symbolic markers of

only shares her talent as an artist, but also her experiences as a

slavery’s past, including place names, African masks and the

black woman.12 Presented with paired images as if in

omnipresent slave ship icon connected by a turbulent sea of

conversation with the past and the present, in call and response,

chains at the center. Appearing as a cognitive map of sorts, if

her Declaration of Freedom and Independence Quilt chronicles

not an organic form, Pindell’s work suggests the idea of a

a long American history, rife with symbolic images and key

living memorial, hinting at the ongoing reverberations of

figures. The painted, quilted panels show the travails of slavery,

slavery and freedom.

including a slave insurrection aboard a slave ship and the

Legacies of Slavery and Emancipation

lifeless bodies of three lynched men, as well as the triumphs of freedom, represented by the figures of Sojourner Truth,

Faith Ringgold’s Declaration of Freedom and Independence

Frederick Douglass and President Obama. Notably, the source

Quilt, 2009, encapsulates the theory of symbolic possession

of each of the images on these panels hails from a widely

of the past while presenting many of the themes of We Hold

circulated, iconic image that is easily recognizable to most

These Truths .... Reminiscent of her Freedom of Speech quilt,

viewers. To be sure, neither Lincoln nor the people granted the

1990, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights,

promise of freedom could have envisioned the country led by

Ringgold’s Declaration of Freedom and Independence

the first black president, elected to a second term, just 150 years

Quilt harnesses the symbols, words and images of the past

after the Emancipation Proclamation.

to mark and commemorate an important moment in time.

Her prominent visible role during the black arts and feminists movements – as a painter, activist and performance artist – of the 1960s and 1970s influenced her pioneering genre of

Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013), 129-130.

2 Richard J. Powell, Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in association with W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1991), 207.

3 See Cheryl Finley, “1969: Black Art and the Aesthetics of Memory,” in Incidences de l’événement: Enjeux et résonances du mouvement des droits civiques [Writing the Event: Issues and Echoes of the Civil Rights Movement], ed. Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry and Claudine Raynaud (Tours: Presses universitaires Francois-Rabelais, 2007), 134.

4 Betye Saar, “Unfinished Business: The Return of Aunt Jemima,” in Unfinished Business: Workers + Warriors, the Return of Aunt Jemima (New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 1998), 3.

5 Ibid.

6 The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in London in 1787. It focused specifically on putting an end to the slave trade initially and was responsible as well for the design and distribution of the iconic Description of a Slave Ship, a broadside visualizing the atrocities of the slave trade that was a convincing image in their Parliamentary and grass roots campaign to end the slave trade. A print of this image is included in the exhibition. The slave trade was abolished by the United Kingdom and its colonies by an Act of Parliament in 1807 and by the United States by an Act of Congress in 1808.

1

Cheryl Finley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Director of Visual Studies Department of the History of Art and Visual Studies Cornell University

In 2003 Vinnie Bagwell was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Circle Public Art Competition for a location at the northwest end of Central Park in New York City. The maquette was designed for that competition. The sculpture has since been reproduced for a memorial at Frederick Douglass’s Highland Beach, Maryland home and museum as well as at Hofstra University.

8 Vinnie Bagwell quoted in Person of Color Sculpture Selection, https://www.hofstra.edu/Community/museum/museum_diversity2. html. Accessed 2/15/2013.

9 Frederick Douglass, “A Tribute to the Negro,” in The North Star, April 7, 1849.

10 See Pierre Nora’s influential work on the concept of the site of memory in Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire” (trans. Marc Roudebush), Spring 1989, 26: 7-25.

11 Faith Ringgold was instrumental in feminist and black artists’ struggles for access and recognition in mainstream institutions in the mid to late 1960s and early 1970s. Together with the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, she picketed the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1971 for the absence of a black curator for its exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America. She was a member of the activist group Where We At: Black Women Artists established in the same year.

12 Note the influence of Southeast Asian Tanga tapestries and the mythology of the Underground Railroad’s use of certain designs on quilts displayed in “safe houses” or as “directions” along the route to freedom. See Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad (New York: Doubleday, 1999).

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Vinnie Bagwell (American, born 1957)

Maquette for Frederick Douglass Circle, 2003 Bronze 24 in. h x 21 in. diameter Courtesy of the artist

Artist’s Statement For anything worth having, one must pay “the price”; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice – no paper currency, no promissory notes, but the gold of real service. Life obliges me to do something meaningful, so I make art to honor cultural legacies. My pursuit of artistic excellence via public art is grounded in my desire to use sculpture as a visual language that is resonant and has the power to reach out, strike the heart, and enrich the lives of others.

Anchored in realism, my style is defined by portraiture which provides insight into the strength of human character and shows a precise articulation of the human spirit. Rendered with the most revealing sensitivity, my subjects are meant to be engaged to invite memories of experiences and feelings. My three-dimensional, lifelike sculpture is often enhanced with a montage of rich details in low, bas-relief-sculpture techniques, text and Braille to add visual intrigue, tell a story, and give a sense of place.

Every character I create is designed and principled to inform viewers that artistry is a powerful, useful tool of social transformation; one capable of condensing our thoughts, distilling our minds, and renewing our hopes and aspirations. Artists are the stewards of civilization, and my gift to the future is the legacy of my ancestors. Thus, when 12

I contemplated my response to Hofstra University’s Call to Artists to create a public artwork to celebrate “the history, achievement, and aspirations of people of color,” I decided that if I had to choose one person in history to speak for me with the requisite passion and eloquence, it would be Frederick Douglass.

The design concept I envisioned is a means by which to sharpen memories: Viewers are reminded of some of the most meaningful and rewarding moments in America’s growth toward inclusion and equality for African Americans. It enables students, faculty and visitors at a world-class university to pause and reflect upon the quantum leaps in social, educational and economic progress that generations born after slavery have made as beneficiaries of Frederick Douglass and others who struggled, fought and died to make freedom and liberty a reality in America. It is a monument to how much further we need to go to erase racism and discrimination from our society.

In the spirit of We Hold These Truths ..., Frederick Douglass’ words bear repeating: “Until color shall cease to be a bar to equal participation in the offices and honor of the country, this discussion will go on ... Until the American people shall make character and not color the criterion of respectability, this discussion will go on ...”

Vinnie Bagwell, November 2012

Willie Cole (American, born 1955) Stowage, 1997 Woodblock print with metal relief printing on Kozo-shi paper 56 x 104 in.

Collection of The Newark Museum, Purchase 2006 Alberto Burri Memorial Fund established by Stanley J. Seeger

Works of art by Willie Cole contain layers of meaning, both personal and universal, and encompass elements of wit and whimsy along with references to both Western art history and African art and culture.

In the 1990s Cole created a series of works in a variety of media that used the base patterns of steam irons to denote different “tribes.”

Playing with the word “brand,” Cole scorched the iron’s pattern, which is unique to the manufacturer, onto fabric or paper to create his work; this can also refer to the branding of slaves. The irons are symbolic both as chains of slavery and as tools used by house slaves or maids.

In the large scale woodblock print Stowage, Cole cut a piece of plywood into five sections. He used the uncovered metal surface of a folding ironing board to create the central image, which references

the slave ship diagram with its tightly packed cargo, an image he was familiar with since childhood. The 12 circular medallions on the four outer sections surround the “ship” and represent different African ethic groups sold into slavery, such as the Fulani or Yoruba people. The steam iron images are positioned with the point at the bottom, producing an image reminiscent of African masks or shields; the unique design of each iron brand creates a different ethnic group.

Cole’s title reinforces the fact that the Africans were considered property or cargo to be transported as stowage (which refers to the placement of cargo on a ship that maximizes the space usage as opposed to steerage, which is the cheapest passenger accommodation on a ship).

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Nathaniel Currier (American, 1813-1888)

James Merritt Ives (American, 1824-1895)

Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican Candidate for Sixteenth President of the United States, 1860 Hand-colored lithograph 12.25 x 9 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections Gift of Mrs. George Estabrook HU64.108

Prior to winning the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was best known for his 1858 debates with Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas. On February 27, 1860, New York Republican party leaders invited Lincoln to give a speech at the Cooper Institute (now Cooper Union). In the speech Lincoln insisted that slavery was morally wrong and rejected any “groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong.” He confirmed his belief that slavery should not be expanded into the western territories and new states, and argued that the Founding Fathers would agree with this position.

This portrait of Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for the presidency is based upon a photograph taken by Mathew Brady at the time of this speech. Both the photograph and lithograph show Lincoln before he sported his famous beard. Used to promote his candidacy for president,

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the lithograph image softens the harsh planes of his face and the rough lines of his facial features. According to a 19th-century sales circular this lithograph sold for 20 cents or 6 for a dollar.

The firm of Currier & Ives is generally regarded as the most significant 19th-century lithography firm. An estimated 10 million prints with more than 7,000 titles were published and sold during the 73 years the firm was in business. The inexpensive prints, which represented a wide range of subject matter, appealed to a broad public. They give us insight today into the values, customs and beliefs of the American people living during the latter half of the 19th century. Advertised as “Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures,” the firm employed both in-house and freelance artists to draw images on the lithograph stones; assembly line methods were used to hand-color the prints.

Daniel Chester French (American, 1850-1931) Seated Lincoln, 1924-25 Bronze, cast 32.125 x 25 x 27.25 in.

The Heckscher Museum of Art Huntington, NY August Heckscher Collection

President Lincoln had a complicated history with Frederick Douglass as they initially supported different agendas. Lincoln, while abhorring slavery and believing it morally wrong, sought to preserve the Union at all costs. By issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 during the Civil War, Lincoln freed the slaves in the rebelling states and emancipated them as the army advanced. The December 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States. The former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass recruited African Americans to the Union army, and met with President Lincoln to attain and assure equal status for the troops.

Working in the tradition of artists who have created figurative works to memorialize the important contributions of major figures in history, Daniel Chester French’s sculpture Seated Lincoln emphasizes Lincoln’s wisdom and dignity, appearing pensive and deep in thought. French was commissioned in 1914 to create the sculpture of Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The large-scale sculpture was completed and installed in 1922. This bronze Seated Lincoln was one of nine replicas that were made during French’s lifetime. To create the sculpture, French utilized portrait photographs by Matthew Brady as well as casts of Lincoln’s face and hands.

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Richard Hunt (American, born 1935)

Model for Middle Passage Monument, 1987 Bronze 12 x 33 x 33 in.

Courtesy of the artist

Richard Hunt’s work often responds to African American history, frequently referencing literature and music. He creates large-scale abstract sculptures most often using welded steel or bronze. An artist typically constructs a scale model before producing the larger sculpture.

This model for a large-scale public monument commemorates the slave ship passage from Africa and is conceived as grand in scale but tragic in content. From Hunt’s 20th-century perspective, the freedom attained through emancipation is overshadowed by the long history of the transatlantic slave trade. Model for Middle Passage Monument was commissioned by art collector Walter O. Evans, who wrote about the project in February 2012: Prior to commissioning the Model for Middle Passage Monument by Richard Hunt, I had read many sources regarding the millions who died during the slave trade while crossing the Atlantic. I had seen

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estimates of up to 60 million who died beginning with the Spanish in the early 16th century until its eventual conclusion in the mid-19th century. My wife and I had also visited Goree’ Island in Senegal, a holding and staging area where so many captives began this treacherous journey. There, we were told stories of death even before the journey began.

The millions who died along the way perished from a number of causes: suicide, starvation, disease from overcrowding and even murder.

I discussed this fact with Hunt and asked if he knew of any monuments commemorating these deaths. Neither he nor I could think of any, and thus began the discussion that led to the commission. I gave Hunt a reading list consisting of many of the books that I had read on the subject and the result is evident in the sculpture.

William H. Johnson (American, 1901-1970) Underground Railroad, ca. 1945 Oil on paperboard 33.375 x 36.375 in.

Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Harmon Foundation

William H. Johnson is best known for his colorful, folk art-inspired scenes of African American daily life, most notably in Harlem and the rural Carolinas. His work helped to broaden the country’s understanding of the African American experience. Evolving from realism to expressionism and studying both in New York and Europe, Johnson developed a mature style that was consciously “primitive” or “naïve,” utilizing bright colors and flattening figures and objects.

In the mid 20th century, the painting Underground Railroad celebrated those Johnson called the “Fighters for Freedom”; both black and

white heroes are represented in the work. The Underground Railroad was a secret route used by slaves to escape to freedom during the 19th century. Prior to the civil rights movement in the United States, Johnson very specifically acknowledged the accomplishments of individuals in his work, supporting his idea “to give – in simple and stark form – the story of the Negro as he has existed.” The painting presents a positive image that recognizes the struggles of the past while celebrating the individuals whose actions helped to change the future for African Americans.

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

Glenn Ligon, working in a variety of media such as painting, photography, printmaking and video, frequently uses language as both form and content in his pieces. In this series, Ligon asked 10 friends to compose descriptions of him as if he was missing and they were notifying the authorities. The comments by different people reveal various characteristics of the artist showing how each person can have a distinct perception of an individual that can also differ from one’s self-perception. The descriptions incorporate non-physical traits, including such phrases as “very articulate” and “looks you straight in the eye when talking to you.”

Glenn Ligon discussed this series of prints at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2002: The Runaways was based on 19th-century advertisements in Southern newspapers for runaway slaves. Owners would often advertise asking people to return them. And these newspapers would have elaborate descriptions of what the slave looked like, and also the slave’s personality.

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The lithographs use little icons of running slaves or kneeling slaves taken from 19th-century newspapers or from abolitionist tracks of the same period, combined with text descriptions that friends wrote describing me as if I’d gone missing and they were describing me to the police. I was interested in how people related to each other under the institution of slavery and the historical resonance between that moment and the moment that we live in now. One of the interesting things I found was that the descriptions that friends gave of me in some eerie ways mimic descriptions I’ve read in these 19th-century newspapers. So it was this odd sort of self-awareness and self-vision set within the context of slavery. I would say, in general, that this series is about the power of language to reinterpret the visual image.

“Glenn Ligon.” Tempo. Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

June 29-September 9, 2002. Web. Audio transcript.

Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Glenn Ligon (American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

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Thomas Nast (American, 1840-1902)

The Emancipation of the Negros, January, 1863 – The Past and the Future., Harper’s Weekly, January 24, 1863 Wood engraving 16 x 21.5 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections, Newspapers Collection

Thomas Nast illustrated Harper’s Weekly from 1862 to 1886; his depictions of the Civil War, with a mix of patriotism and sentiment, were primarily propaganda against the South. While initially moderate on the issue of slavery (known by some as Harper’s Weakly), at the onset of the Civil War the publication supported President Lincoln and the Union.

Nast’s The Emancipation of the Negros, January, 1863 – The Past and the Future. celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation and presents an idealistic image of the future. The central drawing depicts a family of former slaves living in comfort and ease, while the surrounding vignettes show the future benefits in contrast with the horrors of the past. Similar to many of the images created at the time, this wood engraving is celebratory and triumphant, signaling the end to slavery

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in the United States after a long and contentious struggle. The wood engraving is very much of the moment and does not acknowledge the limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In the wood engraving A Negro Regiment in Action (1863), Nast portrays the black regiment as a capable and integral component of the war against the South, an active contributor to their own emancipation. Although the inclusion of African Americans in the Northern army was debated from the onset of the Civil War, after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced recruitment of African American troops officially began. With the encouragement of abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass and the understanding that service would lead to citizenship, volunteers responded, and the Bureau of Colored Troops was established in May 1863.

Thomas Nast (American, 1840-1902)

A Negro Regiment in Action – [See Page 174]., Harper’s Weekly, March 14, 1863 Wood engraving 13.5 x 20.25 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections, Newspapers Collection

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Howardena Pindell (American, born 1943) Lash (Slavery Memorial), 1994-1999 Mixed media on canvas 55.5 x 136 in.

Courtesy of Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY

Howardena Pindell is a painter, mixed media artist, curator and educator known for her use of a wide variety of techniques and materials in her artwork. While she explores the process of making art, her work is often political, addressing the issues of racism, feminism and exploitation. Themes of deconstruction and reconstruction also permeate her work.

The title Lash alludes to the slashed eye image that represents the artist’s great-grandmother who was blinded in one eye by the lash of an enslaver’s whip. In combination with other imagery, Pindell incorporates the symbolic image of the slave ship in Lash (Slavery Memorial). The free-form canvas consists of three sections in which the central portion of the painting is formed by a sea of chains –

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representing the treacherous and often deadly middle passage crossing between Africa and the United States. The images of ritual masks and artifacts along with the names of cultural groups on the left side of the canvas reveal the African origins of the slaves. The right section of the canvas represents the experience of American slavery through a combination of African images, maps, place names and surnames.

The names of African American inventors serve as an acknowledgment of the endurance and ingenuity of an enslaved people who succeeded against all odds. For example, Elijah McCoy was a mechanical engineer known for his high quality inventions; his products became the basis for the expression “the real McCoy.” Working in the shoe industry, Jan Ernst Matzeliger invented a machine that attached soles to the upper parts of the shoe, a job previously done laboriously by hand.

Faith Ringgold (American, born 1930)

Declaration of Freedom and Independence Quilt, 2009 Acrylic on canvas; painted and pieced border 65 x 65 in.

Courtesy of ACA Galleries, New York, NY

Like many artists, Faith Ringgold works in a variety of media but she is best known for her story quilts. The themes of these works often address racial issues and concerns about women’s rights. An African American woman, Ringgold combines aspects of history, art history and autobiographical references to tell her stories. The quilts contain elements of anger and disillusionment as well as hope, happiness and pride – a complicated narrative.

Ringgold expressed her personal vision of freedom in America when creating Declaration of Freedom and Independence Quilt in 2009.

The imagery and text compares the struggle of the Revolutionary era Americans against British rule with the struggle of African Americans for freedom and equality in the United States, recognizing the hypocrisy, progress, failures and successes. The text around the perimeter of the quilt summarizes the struggle for freedom; it begins with “1619 Slaves arrive in Jamestown” and ends with “2008 Barack Obama elected president.”

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Betye Saar (American, born 1926) Yesteryear, 2006 Mixed media assemblage on vintage window 20 x 24 x 1.75 in., signed and dated Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Betye Saar often creates works that incorporate a variety of materials and found objects. In her mixed media assemblages she deals with political, racial and gender themes with the intention of reaching “across the barriers of art and life, to bridge cultural diversities and forge new understandings.”

In 2005-2006 Saar created a series called Migrations/Transformations.

Layering carefully selected objects and images, Saar created mixed media assemblages that represented the historical journeys of many African Americans and included references to Africa, slavery and middle passage. In Migration: Africa to America II (2006) the slave

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ship image is used graphically in combination with an African American female figure that appears on the opposite side of the sculpture from the African figure, referencing the journey between continents. In these journeys, Saar brings the historical events to the forefront and reminds us how the past can shape our present.

The bottom three segments of Yesteryear contain an African mask, a heart locket with an image of middle passage and a pad lock. The photograph of seven African American women rise above this past but also rest upon it. The heavens above with a brightly burning sun reveal hope for the future.

Betye Saar (American, born 1926)

Migration: Africa to America II, 2006 Mixed media assemblage 11.75 x 9.75 x 9.25 in., signed and dated Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

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Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Crest of Pine Mountain, Where General Polk Fell, 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

The work of Kara Walker addresses issues of racial myths, slavery, gender politics, sexuality of oppression/domination, and autobiography. She is best known for her large scale cut-paper black silhouettes on these themes. Walker’s use of stereotypical racial figures has provoked debate about whether her work reinforces these negative stereotypes or if she reclaims them. Her critics, including other African American artists, writers, scholars and educators, assert that Walker’s use of stereotypes is opportunistic and continues to exploit African Americans in the tradition of the antebellum South.

Walker’s supporters, which include major art museums and art critics, believe her works reinterpret the stereotypes and, thus, have power over them. These are two diametrically opposed views and discussion continues as to whether Walker’s art supports a history of racial oppression or emancipation from it.

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In 2005 Kara Walker created a series of prints in which she imposes her characteristic black silhouettes onto background images taken from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War: Contemporary Accounts and Illustrations from the Greatest Magazine of the Time, with 1000 scenes, maps, plans and portraits, a two volume collection of images and essays intended by the editors to illustrate the history of the war. Published in 1866, it purported to narrate events as they occurred to create a seemingly objective historical record and was widely read during the Civil War period. By combining her silhouettes with images by Thomas Nast, Walker asks the viewer to reconsider this “official” record and questions the idea that slavery ended with the Civil War. This portfolio contains 15 lithographs with silkscreen of which four are included in this exhibition. The Nast wood engravings were enlarged to create the lithographs, which were then screenprinted with Walker’s silhouettes.

Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

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Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Deadbrook After the Battle of Ezra’s Church, 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

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Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

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John Quincy Adams Ward (American, 1830-1910)

The Freedman, 1862 (1891 cast) Bronze 20 x 14.75 x 7 in.

National Academy Museum, New York

Nineteenth-century sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward was trained in the United States and was one of the first sculptors to adopt a more naturalistic style, as opposed to the Neoclassicism predominant in Europe at the time. Ward believed that American sculptors should depict American subjects and address current issues, not classical themes.

Ward was a noted abolitionist and supporter of the Union. In The Freedman he portrays the freed slave in a dignified, even heroic, manner; it was created in celebration and in support of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The realistic sculpture

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combines the grace of a classical sculpture with the principles of naturalism prevalent in 19th-century American sculpture. Ward showed great attention to the detailed physiognomy and anatomy of the enslaved figure while the broken manacles on the figure’s left wrist and in his right hand symbolize his freedom. Ward’s contemporary, James Jackson Jarves, wrote in The Art-Idea: Part Second of Confessions of an Inquirer (1864) that The Freedman “... tells in one word the whole sad tale of slavery and the bright story of emancipation.” It was understood by contemporary viewers to be an eloquent symbol of a tragic past and hopeful future.

Description of a Slave Ship, 1789 London: Printed by James Philips Reproduction of wood engraving 25 x 20 in.

Princeton University Library Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

This broadside of the slave ship Brooks was originally published in 1789, when more than 10,000 copies were issued in London. The abolitionist movements in England and the United States circulated this graphic illustration of the brutality of the slave trade. A key propaganda tool for the anti-slavery movements in both countries, the visual image shows how tightly packed the human cargo actually

was. The description below the image notes the space allotted for each person: man 6 feet x 1 foot 4 inches; woman 5 feet 10 inches x 1 foot 4 inches; child 5 feet x 1 foot 2 inches. This diagram, and others similar to it, was used along with firsthand accounts and other testimony to reveal the inhumanity of the slave trade. The image has become a universal symbol representing the evils of slavery.

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Hofstra University Department of Special Collections Hofstra University’s Department of Special Collections holds several collections that include documents crucial to the understanding of slavery on Long Island. The media has often depicted slavery as a southern institution, whereas history shows us that the North had its share of slaves, as well. Long Island’s slave population, however, was somewhat different than its plantation-oriented southern counterpart.

For example, most families on Long Island had only two or three slaves and they often worked side by side with their masters in the fields or in the home. The sale of slaves was not usually a public sale, but private between two parties. Therefore, slave transmittals were documented with a bill of sale or receipt.

New York laws were enacted to govern slaves, including reasonable corporal punishment and forbidding the congregation of more than three enslaved Africans. Documents, including indictments against slaves, were filed in local courts. Often, slaves were sent away, at the owner’s expense, to Barbados to work the sugarcane fields. Newspapers carried stories of runaway slaves, and rewards were often advertised describing in detail the individual and items of clothing they might be wearing.

Manumission documents indicate that a slave was freed, and the former slave must carry that document at all times. Some Long Islanders manumitted their slaves in attempts to evade financial burdens such as caring for the sick or elderly, while others were responding to the increasing antislavery sentiment in New York. Manumissions were sometimes required under bills of sale for slaves after a period of service.

These documents are indicative of the lives slaves led on Long Island.

Geri E. Solomon

Assistant Dean of Special Collections and University Archivist Hofstra University Libraries

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Fanning Slave Document, 1783 Handwritten document 5 x 7.75 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections African Americans on Long Island Collection

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Indentures for Two Slaves, 1722 Handwritten document with wax seal residue 13.5 x 16.5 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Carman Family Collection

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Lincoln Mourning Pin, 1865 Tintype photograph of Lincoln in frame with oval cutout, black ribbon and attachments 3.25 x 2.125 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Americana Souvenir Collection

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List of Taxable Property, 1863 Printed form with handwriting in ink 12 x 6.25 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections J.C. Thompson Collection

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Long Island Slave Manumission, Oyster Bay, NY, 1801 Handwritten document with wax seal residue 6 x 8 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections African Americans on Long Island Collection

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“Twenty Dollars Reward,” Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, February 9, 1795 Newspaper 20 x 14 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Robert M. Storman Collection

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We Hold These Truths ...

Exhibition Checklist Vinnie Bagwell

William H. Johnson

Faith Ringgold

(American, born 1957)

(American, born 1930)

2003 Bronze 24 in. h x 21 in. diameter Courtesy of the artist

(American, 1901-1970) Underground Railroad, ca. 1945 Oil on paperboard 33.375 x 36.375 in.

Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Harmon Foundation

Willie Cole

Glenn Ligon

Maquette for Frederick Douglass Circle

Acrylic on canvas; painted and pieced border 65 x 65 in.

Courtesy of ACA Galleries, New York, NY

Betye Saar

(American, born 1955) Stowage, 1997 Woodblock print with metal relief printing on Kozo-shi paper 56 x 104 in.

Collection of The Newark Museum, Purchase 2006 Alberto Burri Memorial Fund established by Stanley J. Seeger

(American, born 1960) Runaways, 1993 Suite of 10 lithographs 16 x 12 in. each Collection of the Davison Art Center Wesleyan University Russell T. Limbach Fund and the Friends of the Davison Art Center funds, 1997

(American, born 1926) Yesteryear, 2006 Mixed media assemblage on vintage window 20 x 24 x 1.75 in., signed and dated Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Nathaniel Currier

Thomas Nast

Betye Saar

(American, 1840-1902)

(American, born 1926)

The Emancipation of the Negros, January, 1863 – The Past and the Future.

Harper’s Weekly, January 24, 1863

Migration: Africa to America II, 2006

(American, 1813-1888)

James Merritt Ives (American, 1824-1895)

Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican Candidate for Sixteenth President of the United States, 1860 Hand-colored lithograph 12.25 x 9 in.

Hofstra University Museum Collections Gift of Mrs. George Estabrook HU64.108

Wood engraving 16 x 21.5 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections, Newspapers Collection

Thomas Nast (American, 1840-1902)

A Negro Regiment in Action – [See Page 174]., Harper’s Weekly, March 14, 1863

Mixed media assemblage 11.75 x 9.75 x 9.25 in., signed and dated Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Crest of Pine Mountain, Where General Polk Fell, 2005

(American, 1850-1931) Seated Lincoln, 1924-25 Bronze, cast 32.125 x 25 x 27.25 in.

The Heckscher Museum of Art Huntington, NY August Heckscher Collection

Wood engraving 13.5 x 20.25 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections, Newspapers Collection

From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

Howardena Pindell

Kara Walker

(American, born 1943)

(American, born 1969)

Lash (Slavery Memorial), 1994-1999

Cotton Hoards in Southern Swamp, 2005

Richard Hunt

Mixed media on canvas 55.5 x 136 in.

Courtesy of Kenkeleba Gallery New York, NY

From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

Daniel Chester French

(American, born 1935)

Model for Middle Passage Monument, 1987 Bronze 12 x 33 x 33 in.

Courtesy of the artist

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Declaration of Freedom and Independence Quilt, 2009

Exhibition Checklist con’t.

Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Deadbrook After the Battle of Ezra’s Church, 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

Kara Walker (American, born 1969)

Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta 2005 From Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) Offset lithograph with silkscreen 24 x 35 in.

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY

John Quincy Adams Ward (American, 1830-1910) The Freedman, 1862 (1891 cast) Bronze 20 x 14.75 x 7 in.

National Academy Museum, New York

Historical Documents Description of a Slave Ship, 1789 London: Printed by James Philips Reproduction of wood engraving 25 x 20 in.

Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections Fanning Slave Document, 1783 Handwritten document 5 x 7.75 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections African Americans on Long Island Collection Indentures for Two Slaves, 1722 Handwritten document with wax seal residue 13.5 x 16.5 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Carman Family Collection

Lincoln Mourning Pin, 1865 Tintype photograph of Lincoln in frame with oval cutout, black ribbon and attachments 3.25 x 2.125 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Americana Souvenir Collection List of Taxable Property, 1863 Printed form with handwriting in ink 12 x 6.25 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections J.C. Thompson Collection Long Island Slave Manumission, Oyster Bay, NY, 1801 Handwritten document with wax seal residue 6 x 8 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections African Americans on Long Island Collection “Twenty Dollars Reward,” Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, February 9, 1795 Newspaper 20 x 14 in.

Hofstra University Libraries, Special Collections Robert M. Storman Collection

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Hofstra University Stuart Rabinowitz President Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Distinguished Professor of Law

Herman A. Berliner Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Lawrence Herbert Distinguished Professor

Hofstra University Museum Beth E. Levinthal Executive Director

Karen T. Albert Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections

Caroline S. Bigelow Senior Assistant to the Executive Director

Kristy L. Caratzola Collections Manager

Tiffany M. Jordan Development and Membership Coordinator

Marjorie Pillar Museum Education Outreach Coordinator

Nancy Richner Museum Education Director

Renee B. Seltzer Museum Educator

Graduate Assistants Frantz Lucien Lyon Ngo Kaitlin Schneekloth

Gallery Assistants Maria Pascarella Tabitha Rose Nicholas Stonehouse Julia Szaniawska Caroline Wilkins

ISBN: 978-0-692-01978-8