Month: January 2019
Happy New Year! (Part 2)
“The Emancipation of the Negroes, January, 1863 – The Past and The Future – Drawn by Mr. Thomas Nast.
Note from Day: Yes, I realize that Part 2 is from an earlier Harpers edition than Part 1, but I wanted to close with something positive and powerful for this New Year to remind us that we must remain positive and that we have the power to demand change.
This illustration shows Thomas Nast’s Vision of the future, and the profound implications of the Emancipation Proclamation signed on this day in 1863. Nast is portraying blacks as normal people. . . not as slaves, property, or field hands. This would have been a shocking image in the day Nast created it, and is probably one of the earliest published images suggesting the possibility that a black family could be not unlike a white family.
This hopeful picture of the future is surrounded by images of the reality of the past. In the upper left image, Nast shows runaway slaves being hunted down by men and dogs. The left image shows a heartbreaking scene of a slave auction. The image shows a young man on the auction block being sold the the highest bidder. The the audience a black women, holding her children, is seen on her knees pleading with one of the buyers. Undoubtedly she has just been sold to her new owner, and she is begging the man to buy her husband as well so that the family will not be broken up. The look of indifference on the man’s face is an indicator that there is little hope of the family staying together, and the husband will soon be sold to someone else.
The lower left image shows scenes of slave torture . . . including a black woman being whipped and beaten, and a man being branded with a hot iron. On the right, we see more images of hope. We see black children attending school and we see black people receiving wages for their work.
Image and description courtesy of Son of the South – http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/january/emancipated-slaves.htm
Happy New Year! (Part 1)
This illustration of New Years Day by Thomas Nast compares and contrasts the state of affairs in the North and the South during the Civil War year of 1864.
The left of the pictures presents scenes of happiness and joy in the North. Union Soldiers are on furlough, celebrating the new year with their family. A small inset image shows former slaves celebrating their recent emancipation. Children are seen happy and playing. A picture of a union soldier shows him to be well fed, clothed and equipped.
In contrast, the images on the right show the sad state of affairs in the South at this time. A woman and several children are shown weeping and grieving over a fresh grave . . . presumably that of the woman’s husband, and the father of the children. A rebel soldier is seen in a tattered uniform, unable to protect himself from the bitter cold.
The upper inset image implies a spiritual component to the Civil War, with scenes of heavenly and demonic beings pitted against one another.
Image and description courtesy of Son of the South – http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/january/new-years-day.htm