Champions of Freedom
date: label: Date made
content: ca. 1857
label: date made
content: ca 1857
name: label: depicted
content: Greeley, Horace
label: depicted
content: Sumner, Charles
label: depicted
content: Seward, William Henry
label: depicted
content: Whittier, John Greenleaf
label: maker
content: Kellogg, E. B. and E. C.
notes: label: Description
content: This anti-slavery print from around 1857 exhibits the portraits of four of the leading abolitionists of the 1850s. In the center of the portraits, an eagle sits atop an American crest, holding in its beak a banner that reads, “Liberty.” Below the portraits, another banner celebrates the men’s guiding principles of “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Soil, Free Men.” All of the men pictured in the print vehemently opposed the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, which employed the doctrine of popular sovereignty to allow the people living in these territories to vote them into the Union as either slave or free states. Horace Greeley, at top, established the New York Tribune and played a leading role in the formation of the Republican Party. William H. Seward, a New York Senator, spoke out in Congress against pro-slavery elements in the Compromise of 1850, such as the Fugitive Slave Act. John Greenleaf Whittier was a Quaker poet and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Charles Sumner became a hero of the abolition movement after he endured a life-threatening beating on the Senate floor after denouncing pro-slavery South Carolina Congressmen. Even before he had gained renown as the victim of “Bleeding Sumner,” the Senator had been a strong proponent of abolition and civil rights for African Americans. In 1848, the city of Boston denied Sarah Robert, a five-year-old black girl, enrollment at a white-only school. In an ensuing court case, Sumner challenged the constitutionality of racially segregated schools in Boston, although the Court ultimately ruled in favor of Boston.
label: Description
content: This print was produced by the Hartford, Connecticut lithographic firm of E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. Edmund Burke Kellogg and Elijah Chapman Kellogg were younger brothers of the founder of the Kellogg lithography firm, Daniel Wright Kellogg. After Daniel Wright Kellogg moved west, his two brothers took over the family lithography firm in 1840 and changed the name to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. They were responsible for the continued success of the family firm and involved in the partnerships with Horace Thayer in 1846-1847, John Chenevard Comstock in 1848 and William Henry Bulkeley in 1867.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: Subject
content: U.S. National Government, judiciary
label: Subject
content: Political Parties
label: Subject
content: Reform Movements
label: depicted
content: Eagles
label: Subject
content: Patriotism and Patriotic Symbols
label: referenced
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: abolitionism
label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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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.60.2544
label: catalog number
content: 60.2544
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: 13 in x 9 1/2 in; 33.02 cm x 24.13 cm