Historical Background
Compromise of 1850
As the newly formed sovereignty began to organize and admit new territories, dispute over slavery and the balance of power in Congress came to a fever pitch. The resultant argument of the expansion of slavery was one that would eventually erode the harmony of the United States. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 also created a more draconian measure to attempt to control and contain slaves in states where slavery was recognized.
Civil War
The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865, in which seven Southern states succeeded from the unified northern states because of the continued dispute between free and slave states. Particularly, as America expanded westward, the question of slavery became an increased point of contention.
Cotton was the economic cash crop of the South, which depended heavily on intensive slave labor for agricultural maintenance and harvest. For the Southern states, abolition meant the disbanding of their economy and the opulent lifestyles in which white plantation owners enjoyed. The war was eventually won by blockading and choking the supplies available to the South and destroying the infrastructure of the Southern states through Union General Sherman's infamous "March to the Sea", in which the railroads were systematically dismantled and military, industrial/commercial and civilian holdings were burned and confiscated in a risky and innovative martial tactic.
Emancipation
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in 1863, freed all slaves in the states that had actively seceded from the Union, without compensation or further legal repercussion. The Emancipation Proclamation countered the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and allowed for any black individuals to join the Union Army, which was desperately in need of bodies as the Civil War continued. It is estimated that nearly three to four million enslaved persons were emancipated as a result of this declaration.
15 th Amendment
In 1870, the 15 th Amendment was ratified granting all men, including black men, the right to vote. While efforts by Southern whites were made to suppress black voters through the creation of literacy tests and poll taxes, this Amendment marked the end of a series of amendments seeking to rectify the re-enfranchise African-Americans as citizens of the United States, as opposed to property.
Minstrelsy
Minstrel shows and the overblown proliferation of stereotypes the character actors embodied served as a form of popular entertainment during this time period. Many American and European whites were influenced by the depiction of black people as stereotypes. White men in black painted faces (initially made by smearing wetted charred cork on the skin) with oversized grins and oversized patchwork clothing, typified trickster tropes and stereotypical portrayals of black people as uncivilized, ignorant and in need of white salvation. These caricatures generally spoke in dialect and created spectacle of the black body in their portrayals. These shows appealed to the middle-class taste of the time, as it created separatism between those who were slaves by race and those who were slaves to wage labor. This racial separation provided comfort in otherness for the average American worker. 6
Genre paintings sometimes work within the paradigm of minstrelsy, sometimes as truth and sometimes as commentary. As mentioned above, because the paintings selected for this until are entirely by white males, the contextualization of their understanding of the world must be considered when viewing their work. Therefore, working with the understanding of the social beliefs and attitudes of the time, the minstrel show and the typing of stereotypical black figures in popular media finds root in this time period.
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