The Reconstruction Era was the period of time immediately following the end of the Civil War in 1865. Although issues regarding slavery and the oppression of black people in America were not the only reason for the war, these issues necessitated solutions that affected large groups of people intimately, in ways that economics and states rights did not. Slavery was a moral problem that needed to be addressed by the American people. The years of legalized slavery and the implications of permitted, encouraged, and institutionalized racism, built into the constitution of the United States, were not problems that could be solved over night. This claim is demonstrated in the art that was produced during this time period, specifically in regards to the representation of black and white children.
The art that was produced during the Reconstruction Era shows us the priorities of a nation seeking to rebuild itself. We know that representation matters and that is evident in the objects that I have selected. The questions that arise when looking at these works center around the issue of the power to enact change. America, standing amidst the rubble of the old order, asks where do we go from here and who has the power to take us there? The answer, as seen through the depictions of black children as displaced, isolated, and less than in comparison to the depiction of white children as autonomous, united and powerful, is one that places the responsibility on the shoulders of the new generation of white people. It is an unsavory solution that has had repercussions evident in America’s continued struggle with the oppression of black people. The objects below remind us that these issues did not die at the Appomattox Court House in 1866 and serve as a charge to continue to amend the wrongs of slavery and racism in all of its forms.
Winslow Homer, Dressing for the Carnival, 1877,
Seymour Joseph Guy, The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room, 1866,
Oil on Canvas, 24 5/8 x 29 1/2 in. (62.5 x 74.9 cm),
In this painting, Seymour Joseph Guy depicts a traditional American family in their dining room during breakfast. This painting is on display at the Met in the collection dedicated to images of everyday American life. The detailed elements of the children’s dress and the decor of the house boast privilege and wealth. The lack of distance between the figures in the scene demonstrates a stability and connectivity that is not evident in the figures of Homer’s Dressing for the Carnival.
Thomas Anshutz, The Way They Live, 1879
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 17 in. (61 x 43.2 cm),
Thomas Anshuts represents a black family working in a tobacco field in a way that was uncommon for the time. Although the title of the work displays an act of othering, Anschutz offers a naturalistic depiction of African Americans that stood in contrast to the dehumanizing caricatures that were commonplace for the period. The children in the scene are painted with a severity that communicates weight and heaviness instead of the levity of youth. They are not pictured playing a game in their comfortable home, but rather they are stationed in a field in assistance and service to their mother.
Allen and Ginter, Caricatured Figure (Fiddler) from Girls and Children series (N64) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products, 1886
Prints, Ephemera, Sheet: 2 5/8 × 1 1/2 in. (6.7 × 3.8 cm),
In this Allen and Ginter advertisement, a young black child is seen playing a violin. He is partaking in an act of play, but his position is not dignified like the children in Beaux’s The Contest for the Bouquet. His posture, his costume and the implied line of his gaze imply a performance for an audience. This representation of the child creates a sense of comedy at the expense of the individual instead of comedy for the sake of play. The child is commodified at his expense and for the entertainment of the viewer.
Cecilia Beaux, Ernesta (Child with Nurse), 1894
Oil on Canvas, 50 1/2 x 38 1/8 in. (128.3 x 96.8 cm),
Cecilia Beaux’s painting of her beloved niece, Ernesta, represents the autonomy and stability afforded to white children in the years following the Civil War. Beaux’s use of free brushstrokes creates an effect of movement that mimics the pace of the child. The movement of the piece highlights the ability of the child to fully inhabit the innocence and freedom of childhood while the presence of the nurse in the background establishes a sense of stability and safety. The placement of the child in the middle of the piece connotes a feeling of control, rather than the isolation and displacement of the child in Winslow Homer’s Dressing for the Carnival.
Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip, 1872
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 20 in. (30.5 x 50.8 cm)
Framed: 24 x 32 x 5 in. (61 x 81.3 x 12.7 cm),
Snap the Whip is one of Winslow Homer’s most famous depictions of children. In this painting, a group of young, white boys are playing a game that requires them to be connected to one another in order to succeed. Scholars have commented that the skill and cooperation required of the boys to play the game is intended to signal the qualities of Americans, specifically the new generation, needed to reunite the country after the war. The children thrown off the chain on the left side of the piece alludes to the challenges ahead of the country, but the lack of black children leads the viewer to questions regarding their place in the future of America.
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