
          Portraits from Slavery.
          Reviewed by Campbell, Emory S.Emory S. Campbell
          Vol. 11, No. 5, 1989, pp. 15-16
          
          Winslow Homer's Images of
Blacks by Peter H. Wood and Karen C.C. Dalton (University of
Texas, 1989. Paper, 144 pp. $19.95.)
          Until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Civil War and
Reconstruction years were the most significant period of events for
freedom and equality in the history of African-Americans. The rise
from the brutality of slavery, through the efforts of abolitionists
and eventually the destructive Civil War, to freedom produced a
tremendous challenge, for the African-American themselves and for the
nation. It is one as well for the recorders of history.
          Although the Civil War and Reconstruction have been well
documented, Winslow Homer's Images of Blacks reveals another
outstanding dimension to this pivotal period in American history, and
particularly African-American history.
          Winslow Homer was an American artist who is best known for his
paintings of the sea and symbols of rugged individuals of the
sea. Born in Boston in 1836, Homer was employed by Harper's Weekly
during the Civil War to illustrate war scenes. But his interest in the
plight of black people began during his childhood, when discussions of
slavery and the abolitionist movement were very much a part of his
daily life.
          Peter H. Wood, professor of history at Duke University, and
C.C. Dalton of the Menil Foundation, carefully and learnedly explain
the life of Homer and his paintings of African-Americans. The authors,
in examining fifty-eight very graphic paintings, have in essence
produced a fitting eulogy for both Winslow Homer, who was obviously a
compassionate artist, and the portrayed African-Americans as they
struggled to achieve freedom and self-determination.
          Wood, whose earlier work, Black Majority, is proudly
acclaimed by both black Americans and scholars of black history, and
Dalton, an equally enthusiastic and accomplished historian, not only
bring light into a dark period with their interpretations, but explore
the development of Homer the artist through childhood and young
adulthood. Homer's parents encouraged "his interest in drawing from
an early age," and, although his parents moved to Cambridge
(nearer to Harvard) from Boston to give him a chance to attend
Harvard, "Win wanted to draw," and elected not to attend
Harvard.
          Wood and Dalton skillfully point out that Homer's motivation for
drawing images of blacks, and their struggle for freedom, could very
well have come from his own personal experience while working "for
the Boston lithographic firm of John Buford and Saws where he
undertook a tedious apprenticeship that lasted until his 21st
birthday"; ..."and since the day he left it, he has called no
man master."
          Homer's parents were opposed to slavery and were members of
Boston's Hanover Street Congregational Church, where Lyman Beecher,
father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the preacher. The Rev. Beecher,
who was oblivious to slavery, moved his flock to Bowdoin Street, and
was later replaced by a popular younger clergyman 

named Hubbard
Winslow. Mrs. Homer also transferred her membership to Bowdoin Street
and named her infant Winslow, "in accordance with a common practice
of the time." But when in 1837 William Lloyd Garrison began "to
organize a Children's Antislavery Crusade," ironically the
clergyman for whom Winslow Homer was named denounced the organization,
and the Homers moved to Cambridge with abolitionist Thomas Wentworth
Higginson.
          Perhaps the strength of the authors' text lies in its
interpretation of Winslow's sensitivities to the subject, as they
relate events to appropriate paintings. For an example, they see two
possible interpretations of the painting, View of Mount Vernon and
North Colonnade, of 1861. One, that Homer's only objective was to
display the exterior view of the dilapidated home of the nation's
first president, at a time when a national fund drive to purchase and
preserve it gave way to a "struggle to preserve the Union itself." But
another, they say, may have been Homer's main purpose. They propose
that since small, remote, figures are coming from a dark cellar, Homer
was describing the fact that "enslaved persons were beginning to
emerge from beneath the large and darkened structure of plantation
society."
          The authors puzzle over the painting, The Baggage
Train: Was Homer, they seem to ask, likening freed citizens of
color to "excess baggage--men who refuse to pull their own
weight?" Then, as if to present the other side, Wood and Dalton
interpret Homer's Blossom Time in Virginia--a young boy
proudly plowing a field, "in preparation to planting" -- :
"this springtime scene embodies the hope born in Afro-Americans
after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment."
          This book is more than a scholarly interpretation of the works of
one of the nation's famous artists. It is also an excellent guide for
learning about the events leading to the Civil War, the Civil War
itself, and the Reconstruction era. I for the first time was able to
see real character in African-Americans during and after the Civil War
era. Heretofore, I envisioned confusion and despair among the
contrabands. Indeed, the paintings exude tremendous emotions: hope,
joy, and a sense of direction and place. And the accompanying text
produces a welcome array of interpretations that reach other
dimensions.
          For those who enjoy art without assistance in interpreting the
artist's subjects, the comments by Wood and Dalton could be annoying
and even boring. Sometimes the obvious is explained. On the other
hand, those same readers will enjoy the authors' meticulous comparison
of Homer's images with those of other artists: e.g., Thomas Nast's
He Wants a Change Too with Homer's
Carnival, pointing out distinct differences.
          Although Peter Wood's Black Majority could be considered the
pinnacle of most historians' careers, readers of this book will be
glad that was not his last work. This book rightfully belongs in every
American home, especially if one is of African-American descent. It is
a wonderful reminder of the great achievement of black people from
slavery to freedom.
          
            EMORY CAMPBELL is director of the historic and still
vibrant Penn Center of the Sea Islands, on St Helena Island, South
Carolina.
          
        