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Slavery is dead(?) / Th Nast. – Vintage Print

Slavery is dead(?) / Th Nast., 1867 — antique engraving
Slavery is dead(?) / Th Nast., 1867. Antique engraving from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare antique engraving captures Slavery is dead(?) / Th Nast. in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Slavery is dead(?) / Th Nast.

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The title's question mark is the key to this wood engraving by Thomas Nast, which ran in *Harper's Weekly* on January 12, 1867. Slavery had been abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, but in the following months Southern legislatures passed Black Codes that restricted the rights of newly freed people, and Congress was fighting with President Andrew Johnson over how to rebuild the South. Nast, a leading political cartoonist of the period, used the weekly's large audience to press the case for Black civil rights during Reconstruction. The piece is worth reading for its doubt as much as its message: the title asks whether the end of slavery was real or only a matter of law.

Created / published1867
Medium1 print : wood engraving.
GenreWood engravings 1860-1870.
NotesIllus. in: Harper's weekly, 1867 Jan. 12, p. 24.
SubjectsAfrican Americans--Civil rights--1860-1870. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) Slavery--United States--1860-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan4,096 × 3,218 px · prints to 14 × 11 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-184652

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