Black and White Slaves
date: label: Date made
content: 1846?
label: date made
content: 1841-1847
name: label: publisher
content: Donnelly, A.
label: artist
content: Clay, Edward Williams
notes: label: Description
content: This lithograph, designed by Edward William Clay, a Northern apologist for slavery, contrasts an idealized scene of seemingly content slaves in America with that of a family of forlorn factory workers in England. In the left “America” panel, a well-dressed slave-holder is depicted with his wife, children, and greyhound. The plantation-owner’s son gestures towards two elderly slaves, who thank their master for providing for them. The white man, in turn, responds that as a long as “a dollar is left me, nothing shall be spared to increase their comfort and happiness.” In the background, a group of slaves is shown smiling and dancing to fiddle music. The circumstances of the black slaves were meant to be interpreted as more favorable than the conditions of life for “white slaves” in England, depicted in the right panel. Here, a starving, unemployed factory worker sits with his malnourished, sickly family, as a man in a top hat instructs him to enter a workhouse.
label: Description
content: Edward Williams Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1799. He originally found employment as an attorney and became a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1825, but he later abandoned law for a career in art. He moved to New York City in 1837 but shortly after was forced to end his artistic career when his eyesight began to fail. The publisher of the work, Arthur Donnelly, maintained a shop at 19 ½ Courtland Street, New York.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1840-1849
label: Subject
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Economy
label: Subject
content: Blacks
label: Subject
content: Political Caricatures
label: referenced
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: Slavery
label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: American Civil War Prints
label: See more items in
content: Art
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2402
label: catalog number
content: 60.2402
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 12 3/8 in x 19 in; 31.4325 cm x 48.26 cm