1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Let My People Free -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
In Let My People Free Johnson spotlights the fraught relationship between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln during the early years of Lincoln's presidency. Douglass (1818-1895) had fled slavery in 1838 via the Underground Railroad. In the 1840s, he helped fugitives cross the border into Canada. Douglass's 1845 book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, along with his published articles and forceful public speeches, made him the nation's most powerful and outspoken opponent of slavery.
Johnson placed these towering figures of the Civil War on opposite sides of a table. Although Douglass had endorsed Lincoln's candidacy, he vehemently opposed Lincoln's efforts to keep the Union together by allowing Southern states to perpetuate slavery and called him a "genuine representative of American prejudice and Negro hatred." After the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Douglass spoke of Lincoln's "deep moral conviction" and recruited African American soldiers for the Union army (two of his own sons enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment).
1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Let My People Free -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
In Let My People Free Johnson spotlights the fraught relationship between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln during the early years of Lincoln's presidency. Douglass (1818-1895) had fled slavery in 1838 via the Underground Railroad. In the 1840s, he helped fugitives cross the border into Canada. Douglass's 1845 book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, along with his published articles and forceful public speeches, made him the nation's most powerful and outspoken opponent of slavery.
Johnson placed these towering figures of the Civil War on opposite sides of a table. Although Douglass had endorsed Lincoln's candidacy, he vehemently opposed Lincoln's efforts to keep the Union together by allowing Southern states to perpetuate slavery and called him a "genuine representative of American prejudice and Negro hatred." After the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Douglass spoke of Lincoln's "deep moral conviction" and recruited African American soldiers for the Union army (two of his own sons enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment).