Eastman Johnson's Negro Life at the South and Urban Slavery in Washington, D.C.

Abstract

By resituating Johnson's celebrated painting in its original urban context of Washington, D.C., this essay offers a new reading of its political and racial imagery. Washington was the primary battleground for abolitionists, and the unusual local conditions of slavery, as well as the specific neighborhood topography of Johnson's family home, greatly inflected the work. A comprehensive survey of critical commentary, ca. 1859–67, reveals a general attempt to read the painting as a nostalgic view of rural plantation life. Finally, economic and moral incentives for this retreat to sentiment and nostalgia are explored.