The Artist who painted this is Kenneth Calvert. His work expresses the struggles and difficult views of the natural world. In this painting the slave girl rebels to read and write. This painting is a moment of great courage to secretly write a letter when at the time reading and writing was a crime.
This is a really cool painting!There are many different small details with the brush stroke. This is a symbolic picture of hope and the willfulness of the girl to push through adversity and educate herself. As we read in the slave narratives I learned of the harsh beatings and whippings slaves received for educating themselves whether through letters, number and trying to read books and/or newspapers. I really like that the picture is depicted at night because it shows the girl is doing learning to write on her time after she has been working all day in the heat. It shows her passion for educating herself!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good picture to pick, just as Stephanie mentioned above the treatment that we read about African Americans receive at this time period is so harsh and disturbing. I think it is pretty interesting to see that even though the girl pictured in the painting knows there is a chance she could be caught and punished she is still willing to write. We also know that considering she still a slave at this time she most likely worked a very long day, even though she may have gotten up at six in the morning and worked in the sun all day she is still willing to staying up and cut time from her sleep in order to help herself improve on the lesson Booker T. Washington tried to pass on to African Americans, education.
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