Slavery Art Robert, Calvin, Martha, and William

Slavery Art

Robert, Calvin, Martha, and William Scott and Mila ended up in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco because its owner, Rev. William Anderson Scott, was the minister at Calvary Presbyterian Church there in 1853-61. He was originally from the South and because of his sympathy for the Confederate cause in the Civil War, including offering public prayers for Jefferson Davis, he "had to leave the city for his safety and that of his family" (Smylie 89-90). His son Robert, depicted on the far left of the painting, became a Union Army officer in 1862, although Rev. Scott regretted that he was "on the wrong side" (Acker 79). Mila was a gift to his wife Ann from her father in 1830, and was in charge of caring for the four children. In the painting, the Scott's wished to be depicted as "relatively well-heeled members of Sothern society" even though they were not members of the planter aristocracy (Acker 77). In style it resembles the typical depiction of the landed gentry in British and American art of the 18th and 19th Centuries, such as the works of Thomas Gainsborough.

Mr. And Mrs. Andrews, by Thomas Gainsborough (1750)

Instead of showing an estate, the portrait of the Scott children and Mila shows the church spire in the center, which was the "locus of the Scott family's power and prestige," as well as the St. Charles Hotel, where the wealthy planters socialized regularly. It was a rural rather than an urban setting, with horses in a pasture shown in the background, and the records show that Rev. Scott also bought a slave boy for $600 in 1843 to tend the family stable. Mila is unusually well-dressed in the painting, since slaves were usually shown barefoot and wearing old clothes, while the four children are fashionably dressed by the standards of the 1840s. Her gaze is "direct, confident…a marked contrast to the typically deferential expressions of slave subjects," and she wore no head wrap as almost all slave women did (Acker 79). Scott may have wished to be seen as a benevolent, paternalistic master who dressed Mila in silk, which was far above her station, although like all slaves and servants she also sits at the periphery of the picture as "accessories to their white owners" (Acker 80). The way she tilts her head upward was also a typical pose for a slave, and the children are all active while she is passive and supportive. In addition, there is a dark building in the background that the artist probably would have considered a typical slave cabin -- boxy, ugly, with and outside chimney and gabled roof. Overall, though, it is a "relatively sympathetic rendering of an African-American subject by the standards of the period" (Acker 81).

Slaves photographed in Virginia, 1862.

Photograph of a slave cabin in Alabama, 1859.

Scott freed Mila and his other slaves before he moved to California in 1853, because slavery was not permitted there. After his death in 1885, Ann Scott recalled that he "disliked slavery but could not see any way out of it" (Acker 78). Although he supported the Confederacy in the Civil War he considered that its cause was hopeless, but during letters written at the time Ann showed not particular qualms about owning slaves. When he visited England in 1846, Scott said that he thought slavery would be gradually abolished, although in an 1850 speech he also stated that any freed slaves should be sent back to Africa (Acker 79). Among his papers was a pamphlet titled The Negro: What is his Ethnographic Status that probably reflected his views. It claimed that blacks were beasts that were created before Adam and had no souls, and that God would punish the country with extermination if it ever made them socially, politically and economically equal to whites (Acker 83).

Other artists at the time saw a very different side of slavery, such as the young British painter Erye Crowe, who traveled through Richmond, Charleston and Savannah in 1852-53. He was horrified by the pubic auctions of slaves in every Southern city, and drew sketches of them that he later turned into oil paintings, such as Slaves Waiting for Sale -- Richmond, Virginia (1861), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy at the time, the same year that the Civil War began. The sketch he used for this painting, Slave Auction at Richmond, Virginia, was published in the Illustrated London News on 27 September 1856.

Crowe also made sketches of slaves being marched to the railroad station in Richmond, where they were transported to new owners in the Deep South. In this scene, their only possessions are the bundles of clothing that they carry, while the church steeples and state capitol building are shown in the background. During the Civil War, this was also the capitol of the Confederate States of America, but in exhibiting these paintings in the 1850s Crowe made it clear that he regarded slavery as the main cause of the war.

After the Sale, by Eyre Crowe (1853)

Slave photographs could serve another purpose as well, such as the picture of Dolly who ran away from the plantation of Charles Manigault. It was used in reward posters, along with her description, that offered $50 for her return.