Dublin Core
Title
Jim Crow
Subject
African Americans, Ethnic Stereotypes, Animals in Human Situations, Etchings
Description
This image displays an African American man dressed in frayed and ripped clothing walking as animals dressed in human attire stroll behind him alongside a steamboat and sailboat in the background. The term “Jim Crow” originated in the 1930s-40s as a white entertainer Thomas Dartmouth Rice staged a performance said to have been shaped from a slave. Rice coined the term as he named his character Jim Crow as he acted nonsensical and spoke with a distorted imitation of African American dialect. Though performances like this were not unknown, Rice’s performance gained much popularity not only in America, but also in England. In the years following the American Civil War, the idea of “Jim Crow” transformed into a way to shorthand laws in order to disenfranchise and further segregate African Americans from society. Continuing through the 1960s, Jim Crow laws denied African Americans basic rights as not only American citizens, but also as humans. Within this image, not only is the figure meant to mock and degrade the stature of African Americans, but also reflect a message that paints African Americans as “the other” within society. Supporting this message, the animals dressed in human clothing are meant to relay the idea of African Americans not being regarded as human, but rather as animals.
Following the emancipation of slaves in the mid-nineteenth century, the formerly bonded attempted to integrate themselves into free society and urban populations. Nevertheless, drawing from Amanda Brickell Bellow’s American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination, African Americans, even those who never experienced slavery, faced different forms of racism that manifested within society following the ratification of the thirteenth amendment. As Bellows notes, African Americans were excluded from public areas as segregation laws were growing, refused wages by white employers, and other obstacles that perpetuated class divide between whites as America carried transgressions that further allowed the financial gap to separate whites and African Americans within society. As Bellows argues, upper classes within society in both Russia and America wanted to maintain their power following emancipation. Illustrated as trouble makers within literature and popular imagery in the United States, elitist art perpetuated a stereotype in order to keep the formerly bonded subservient and unable to advance within society.
Having been produced decades before emancipation, this image entitled Jim Crow displays not only the white perception of African Americans within the nineteenth century, but also provides evidence that racism against African Americans was not isolated within America. This print, just like Thomas Dartmouth Rice’s stage performances, was printed and gained popularity not only in New York and Pennsylvania, but also in London, England. The establishment of emancipation for slaves did not provide real freedom as they continued to collide with actions that blocked the pathway to success that many dreamed of. The establishment and effects of Jim Crow that were seen well into the mid-twentieth century reveal that the post-emancipation culture within America continued to reflect ideas that were present before emancipation ever took place.
Sources:
Bellows, Amanda Brickell. "Radical Literature on the Eve of Emancipation." American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination, pp. 198-199.
"The Origins of Jim Crow." Ferris State University, www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/origins.htm.
Following the emancipation of slaves in the mid-nineteenth century, the formerly bonded attempted to integrate themselves into free society and urban populations. Nevertheless, drawing from Amanda Brickell Bellow’s American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination, African Americans, even those who never experienced slavery, faced different forms of racism that manifested within society following the ratification of the thirteenth amendment. As Bellows notes, African Americans were excluded from public areas as segregation laws were growing, refused wages by white employers, and other obstacles that perpetuated class divide between whites as America carried transgressions that further allowed the financial gap to separate whites and African Americans within society. As Bellows argues, upper classes within society in both Russia and America wanted to maintain their power following emancipation. Illustrated as trouble makers within literature and popular imagery in the United States, elitist art perpetuated a stereotype in order to keep the formerly bonded subservient and unable to advance within society.
Having been produced decades before emancipation, this image entitled Jim Crow displays not only the white perception of African Americans within the nineteenth century, but also provides evidence that racism against African Americans was not isolated within America. This print, just like Thomas Dartmouth Rice’s stage performances, was printed and gained popularity not only in New York and Pennsylvania, but also in London, England. The establishment of emancipation for slaves did not provide real freedom as they continued to collide with actions that blocked the pathway to success that many dreamed of. The establishment and effects of Jim Crow that were seen well into the mid-twentieth century reveal that the post-emancipation culture within America continued to reflect ideas that were present before emancipation ever took place.
Sources:
Bellows, Amanda Brickell. "Radical Literature on the Eve of Emancipation." American Slavery and Russian Serfdom in the Post-Emancipation Imagination, pp. 198-199.
"The Origins of Jim Crow." Ferris State University, www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/origins.htm.
Source
Jim Crow. [London, new york & philadelphia: pub. by hodgson, 111 fleet street & turner & fisher ; between 1835 and 1845?] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2004669584/>.
Publisher
Originally Published in London by Orlando Hodgson, 111 Fleet Street & republished by Turner & Fisher in New York and Philadelphia
Date
1830-1845
Contributor
Mary George
Format
Etching and ink print; 20.5 x 13.8 cm
Language
English