Changes

[[File:ridefor liberty.jpg|thumbnail|left|350px|"A Ride for Liberty," Eastman Johnson, 1862.]]

The Antebellum period in America gave rise to political tension focusing on the issue of slavery. Politicians, large planters, orators, and activists engaged in heated and often violent debates as to the merits of “owning” a human being. The political, social, and economic angles were argued with each side offering its own spin on the topic. The importance of art as propaganda cannot be omitted when discussing Antebellum America. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1858 in an effort to illuminate the horrors of slavery. Nearly two decades earlier; however, Edward William Clay’s 1841 drawing, ''America'', was a response to the increased abolitionist movement in the North. Clay’s intent was promote the idea that slavery was good for slaves. The significance of this piece however, is not in the meaning itself; rather the importance lies in Clay’s intended audience. America attempted to convey a message to abolitionists and working-class members of the North---both black and white---that the “peculiar institution” of slavery was preferable to eking out a living in northern factories.

Clay portrays the surrounding landscape as clean and inviting. The grounds are free of trash and clutter and the cabins appear as warm and solid structures. He, of course, was well aware of the conditions under which people lived in densely populated urban cities. The tenements, which mainly comprised the immigrant and working class sections of cities such as Boston and New York, were shoddily built. The crowded, garbage filled streets were busy with activity and littered with vagrants and transients. Families of six and eight people were packed into one-bedroom flats that were cold fire traps. It was to those people whom Clay hoped to speak. For they were the people who were toiling fifteen hours a day yet were still cold and hungry.

Clay’s slaves were depicted as the opposite of the reality endured in the cities. The drawing presents the audience with happy slaves dancing on a sunny day. Hale and hearty, they are the embodiment of good nutrition and adequate rest. A healthy, barefooted child sits on the warm earth in a clean and well-fitting dress. The white woman, presumably the slave owners wife, shields her eyes with a parasol; indicating a warm and sunny climate. Again, this is in stark contrast to the all-too-real conditions faced by factory workers in the North. Workers in Chicago’s packing houses or Lowell’s factories endured frigid winters and sparse rations. Their children often faced serious illness due to poor nutrition and lack of medical care. The adults were too exhausted at the end of a work day to engage in dancing and singing. They were alone in the effort to support their families contrary to what Clay wanted one to believe about slaves.

== Reality ==

As it is not the purpose of this essay to debate whether slavery was good or bad, it is sufficed to say that Clay’s depiction is not accurate. Slaves did in fact work under grueling conditions and the watchful eye of an overseer. Their cabins were often merely cold and dark shacks and their nutrition was less than healthful. A slave did not receive the courteous sign of respect of a white man removing his hat in the presence of a black man. Slaves did not dance and sing in the middle of the day when their master approached. Their clothes were ill-fitted and though they tried, were unable to be kept clean. Conditions such as these were on par with those of free society; the difference of course being the word, “free.”

<references/>

{{Contributors}}