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(upbeat piano music)
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- [Beth] We're in the American galleries
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at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
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and we're looking at a
really interesting painting
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by Winslow Homer called
"Army Teamsters," 1866.
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So this is painted just after
the end of the Civil War,
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but Homer spent quite
a bit of time painting
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and making prints showing the
war to a Northern audience.
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- [Christopher] In Homer's
travels with the Union Army,
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he became acquainted
with the everyday aspects
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of this huge operation
that required the moving
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of so many men, goods, arms,
and so in "Army Teamsters,"
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we see five men who are
presumably taking a moment off
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from their main role in
moving the Union Army.
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- [Beth] In art history,
when we think about
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paintings of war time, we
think about battle scenes
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or depictions of heroic
victory or heroic death,
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but here we have a very everyday scene
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which Homer would have
witnessed, and these are the men
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who are driving the wagons
that we see in the background.
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- [Christopher] For him,
it was that interest
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in the humanity of all
of these different people
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with the army, and
recognizing their hard work.
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The four men who are
leaning against the tent
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are those that who are
absolutely exhausted
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from having moved these wagons and mules.
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Now, the mules themselves,
all looking quite bedraggled,
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show the amount of work
that has just occurred.
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- [Beth] And we know that the issue
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of black people serving in the Union Army
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was a contentious one.
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- [Christopher] So the
Union Army did train and arm
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many black Americans,
but also men like these
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might've been swept up into the Union Army
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as they went through
especially Southern states
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and they flocked to their
freedom to the Union Army,
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where they could be enlisted
or at least provided
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with the daily requirements of life.
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through this very arduous labor.
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- [Beth] During the Civil War,
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enslaved people who make
their way to the Union Army,
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who make their way north,
don't have to be returned
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as property to their
owners, but can be kept
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as what was called contraband of war.
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And contraband is a difficult term to use
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to talk about human beings.
- Yeah, absolutely.
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- [Beth] And so, one term that
we used instead is refugees.
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These figures who fled north,
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who want to serve in the Union Army
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and are often put in
the role of Teamsters,
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of driving mule trains.
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- [Christopher] They are self-emancipating
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and they are trying to make the best
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of their lives through
continued hard labor.
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These figures don't seem
to rely on caricature.
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We have Homer's original sketches
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that are presumably based on five people,
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and I think he's recognizing them
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as fellow participants
in this cataclysmic war.
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- [Beth] And in fact, when
we compare Homer's figures
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to illustrations in Harpers,
there's one in particular
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of Teamsters who were being paid
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where the black figures
are very caricatured.
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We clearly see that that's
not what Homer is doing here.
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Nevertheless, a scene of black figures
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relaxing in the sunshine did bring to mind
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stereotyped images of
enslaved people as lazy.
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- [Christopher] Critics and
viewers were responding to that.
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There is a decades-long visual
history of precisely that,
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the black body in a moment of
relaxation asleep in the sun,
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something akin to what we see here.
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- [Beth] And for Homer,
this interest in this lovely
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late afternoon light where
the figures are casting
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long shadows on the tent behind them.
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- [Christopher] Perhaps
there's a coolness setting in
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and capturing those last
moments of warm sunlight
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is important to these men.
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- [Beth] And "The Bright Side,"
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perhaps alluding to the
future of these men,
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a future that's brighter than enslavement.
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- [Christopher] Homer sees that
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as looking towards what's coming.
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- [Beth] Let's talk for
a minute about the figure
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who is sticking his
head out from the tent,
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and who's the only figure who
seems to be engaging with us.
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- [Christopher] Critics did
respond to his expression.
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His emerging from the tent
is wholly playing into
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preexisting stereotypes and caricatures
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of the comic black
figure that you could see
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in places like popular illustration,
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but also the minstrel stage.
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But what's interesting
is the grin or smirk
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that were often ascribed to him
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in contemporary printed reviews
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doesn't seem to be apparent
in the actual painting itself.
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- [Beth] We have four figures here,
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one of whom's torso and
head are almost completely
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eclipsed by the figure in the foreground.
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- [Christopher] So the
Figure in the foreground,
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who's holding a whip, seems
to be blocking the view
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of a man who's wearing a
blue Union Army kepi cap,
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something that would have been given
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to the enlisted soldiers.
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- [Beth] It's impossible
not to read the whip,
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which would have been used
to drive the mule train,
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also as a instrument of
punishment for enslaved people.
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- [Christopher] This object was previously
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used for punishment.
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It can now drive one forward
into a new stage in life.
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- [Beth] Because Homer is
embedded with the Union troops,
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we get this view into the
everyday life of the Union Army
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and the role that formerly
enslaved people could play
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serving the Union effort.
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- [Christopher] for Homer
and many of his colleagues,
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he would have seen this
as a positive element,
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being able to offer these men
freedom, labor, housing, food,
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all in the continued effort to win the war
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and be done with slavery once and for all.
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(upbeat piano music)