Artistic Statement:

My visual is about Abraham Lincoln not really freeing the slaves. I believe that Abraham Lincoln always had the power to free them he just waited on it because that’s not what he really wanted. I think my visual will be unclear in the sense that most people think that he freed the slaves because that’s what they were taught. They have no real background knowledge of the situation so of course they will agree that Lincoln freed the slaves.

Lincoln’s main priority at the time was saving the union. He didn’t care about the slaves or whether they were free or not, he just didn’t want the union to fall apart. He freed the slaves to make a statement to the rest of the union that he was in charge. He says he was antislavery yet at the same time he never wanted blacks and whites to be equal.

Artist Statement

As my visual, I decided to make a concept map. It shows that at the end of the reconstruction era, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. There were violence; beating, whipping, killing and there was so called “freedom”; with restrictions, segregation, and living. This visual has a meaning because it is telling the readers that even after the reconstruction, the former slaves became freedmen but yet they were still getting the same treatments. The quotes that I used are all from former slaves/freedmen after the reconstruction.

One element that the visual has that may not be clear for the reader is the branch in the middle that doesn’t connect to anything. That might not be clear because everything else is connected to one another, but that one isn’t. I decided to put that by itself in the middle because the phrase sums up the whole visual. It says, “The blacks were still under the whites,” which is what was happening. Even after the reconstruction, the blacks were suppose to be freedmen, but yet they were still under the whites and they had a hard time living on their own.

Another thing that might not be clear to the audience are the “branches”, the connections from one thing to another. The connections are pointing out the different points of the certain topic. For violence, it is connecting to three different points; whipping, beating and killing, because those are all a part of violence. For “freedom”, it’s connecting to restriction, living?, and segregation. Each of the points are connecting to two different quotes that I found from former slaves/freedmen that were spoken after the reconstruction.

My visual shows that after the reconstruction, the blacks were still getting the same treatments. They were treated poorly, they didn’t have their so called freedom, and they were still under the whites. Even though many believed that the reconstruction gave the former slaves freedom, they didn’t really fully get their freedom until about a hundred years later. That is why I think it matters as to the African American history as a whole.

Nat Hilton

My piece is a flyer about the Sculptor Edmonia Lewis. It is set in the time of reconstruction and speaks about her history, impact, and artwork. The one portion of the flyer I wanted to focus on was my highlighting of keywords, I imagined these to be popular negative or positive phrases of the time and wanted to add emphasis. I did this by making them a certain color and putting them on bold them. As I previously mentioned, I would assume they would use this style in the news flyers of the period, highlighting and making the key words bold to catch the reader's eye. This is important because I wanted to attain a form of accuracy when making this flyer, and this style interested me the most, it seemed very practical and looked appealing. The second portion I wanted to highlight about the visuals has to do with the face beneath the text, you can clearly see eyes and a mouth. These few features are meant to represent Edmonia Lewis in a very minimalist and simplistic way, I was looking for something that looked of the era but was slightly modern. I feel like the mixture of old fashioned word organization and the more modern style of interpretive imagery would draw the reader in even more. I thought it mattered to include Edmonia’s facial features as a visual because I wanted her personality to be welcome in the flyer, not just her information. I wanted there to be a personal connection with this Abolitionist Artist of the reconstruction era, she was a large influence for many people and affected the art world and that time period in a very big way. Edmonia Lewis impacted African American history`by inputting her artistic work into a key moment in history, one of the most influential parts of African American change in America and she was on the forefront of the art world. She has influenced not just sculptors but several African American artists of all generations.

LINK TO FLYER: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PU3BGFjhywzz8uFVxdCoZ5hDgsbfTjz9oeGSsk5yKc8/edit

LINK TO RESEARCH:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Da3YElsvtxMfNSEk2hSqhHgALX3xRVjlIttQFVW94yY/edit

Philadelphia was one of the worst cities to be a different race in the Northeast during the Reconstruction Era. One of the major issues there (or, alternatively, the one that gathered many protests) was the Philadelphia street cars being segregated. Because of the climate, the opinion columns pictured were actually a bit more liberal than would’ve been acceptable at the time, and the second one wouldn’t likely be published in a neutral newspaper.

The political cartoon may be a bit unclear. The real message is that the street car in itself does not symbolize equal rights, but getting into it does. A door is drawn on the street car, and is labeled equal rights (the picture is low quality and I apologize). This is supposed to be a symbol more than anything else; getting onto the street car wouldn’t automatically create equal rights for every citizen of the United States. However, it would be (and was) a victory and a statement. If the street cars could be desegregated, then other things could get done, too.

Also, on the opinions, we still see the racist one today. It may take different forms, the homophobe, for example, but what they say is always the same. “We gave them enough, they don’t need more.” This is dangerous, the way they’re playing it. They act like they’re trying to preserve peace.

Something I inserted in there was the comment about ‘our lord’ on the other one. This was just so it would feel more 1800s-ish while the newspaper looked ridiculously modern.

Not to say that the segregated street cars weren’t an issue, because they were, and people were suffering because of it.

Many people famous for their efforts during Reconstruction were involved i this mess, including William Still.

My cartoon is split into two sections. The first column is drawings that represent a black man on his journey through life during the Reconstruction era. When slaves are given the right to, he learns to read and is amazed by it, he’s learning new things. The hate group against blacks at the time called the KKK, Klu Klux Klan, notices this and is infuriated so they burn the book. They did this a lot back during that era and many more graphic and violent things that I decided not to show in that specific panel. This is important because slaves obviously did benefit from the Reconstruction era and the laws passed along with it. However, whenever an eager black wanted to do something more for themselves or achieve something in their new way of life, there would always be a backfire and racial hate that came along with their success. So even though they were technically and legally “free” the treatment they were given was just how it was when they were enslaved. You were one of the lucky ones if you were black during that time and succeed financially and socially amongst the whites in life. But this was rare, if not impossible.

In the first panel in the second column there is a drawing of the same black man but now he is a doctor, most of you probably think that this wasn't possible, but the patients would see him in the confines of his own home to receive treatment. When someone tipped the KKK about Dr. Johnson’s recent activities they went straight to his home, forcibly brought him to the woods and lynched him. This form of killing was quite common back then among the KKK, they would usually gather many black men and have a group lynching inviting the townspeople to watch, like a movie. They would all gather together in the woods and laugh and ridicule the murdered. These acts were cruel, inhuman and immoral.

So overall, it shows the racial discrimination and immoral acts brought upon blacks in America. It matters for us to study these topics so history won’t repeat itself and for everyone to be educated on the struggle this countries ancestors had to endure to give us freedom and the life we live today. Freedom, a right that every human that ever lived should have gotten.

Artist Statement:

In my visual it may be hard to understand certain aspects such as the date written and the name of the newspaper itself. I am here to clear all that up. lets start with the date the newspaper was made. It was made on April 28, 1870, the reason why I chose this date was because the KKK was created about years prior. They also had a lot activity during this time with the Radical Republicans and African Americans in general. Andrew Johnson was also Impeached 2 years before this date and the Radical Republicans had a big role in the impeachment.

Now to the second point. Why did I name the newspaper,¨The Philadelphia post¨?

The first reason is pretty simple really, I just like the way it sounds and I also live in Philadelphia. With further reflection though I figure that Philadelphia is a recurring state in African American history. It has been a staple in which African Americans go to, to have a taste of freedom. That is basically why I called it ¨The Philadelphia Post¨.

Finally to the juicy stuff, Why should you care about Radical Republicans? In my opinion Radical Republicans are not afraid to think out of society standards and stand up to what they believe in. You can draw from those traits and learn how they stood up for what they believe in and apply to your own life. Thank you for taking the time to look at my artist statement and actually looking at my visual.