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Free Negroes in The North
- Creator:
- Adalbert Johann Volck
- Location:
- Maryland, Baltimore
- Origin Date:
- 1861-1863
- Materials:
- paper
- Measurements:
- overall: 12 1/2 in x 14 1/2 in
- Item ID:
- 71.2009.081.0140
- Holding Institution:
- Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum
- Available for Viewing:
- No
- Category:
- Fine Art
Description
This etching is a political cartoon by Adalbert Volck, a Southern sympathizer living in Baltimore, Maryland, during the United States Civil War. This cartoon, one of the Confederate War Etchings series, depicts the facade of a boarding house for African-American men. The focal point is a well-dressed white (possibly Henry Ward Beecher, a leader in the antislavery movement) refusing monetary help to the emaciated beggar clothed only in rags: instead he offers a religious ”tract” to him with a gloved hand. On the other side of a fence, another white man looks through his purse to pay two grave robbers for a corpse. All of this is taking place on a street corner called ”Lovely Lane,” outside of an establishment with a sign above the door that reads, ”Praise the Lord Bare Bones Colored Mens Home.” Inside the building, men and women are dancing and carousing. A fight spills out the upstairs balcony. Original etching one of thirty published in Volck's "Confederate War Etchings." Part of The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum