Emancipation of the Negroes, the past and the future

Emancipation of the Negroes, the past and the future. The central scene shows the interior of a freedman's home with the family gathered around a wood stove. The father bounces his small child on his knee while his wife and others look on. On the wall near the mantel hang a picture of Abraham Lincoln and a banjo. Below this scene is an oval portrait of Lincoln and above it, Thomas Crawford's statue of freedom. On either side of the central picture are scenes contrasting black life in the South under the Confederacy (left) with visions of the freedman's life after the war (right). At top left fugitive slaves are hunted down in a coastal swamp. Below, a black man is sold, apart from his wife and children, on a public auction block. At bottom a black woman is flogged and a male slave branded. Above, two hags, one holding the three-headed hellhound Cerberus, preside over these scenes, and flee from the gleaming apparition of Freedom. In contrast, on the right, a woman with an olive branch and scales of justice stands triumphant. Here, a freedman's cottage can be seen in a peaceful landscape. Below, a black mother sends her children off to public school. At bottom a free Negro receives his pay from a cashier. Two smaller scenes flank Lincoln's portrait. In one a mounted overseer flogs a black field slave (left); in the other a foreman politely greets Negro cotton-field workers

1860-1869 Apart Apparition Auction Banjo Bounces Branded Cashier Cerberus Confederacy Constitution Contrast Contrasting Either Emancipation Engravement Flank Flee Flogged Foreman Fugitive Gleaming Greets Hags Hang Hunted Knee Mantel Montage Negro Negroes Old-fashion Olive Overseer Politely Preside Proclamation Scales Sends Slaves Smaller Stove Swamp Three-headed Triumphant Visions

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