The Emancipated and Freed in American Sculpture. A Study in Interpretation. By Freeman Henry Morris Murray. Murray Brothers, incorporated, Washington, D. C., 1916. Pp. 228.
This work is to some extent a compilation of matter which on former occasions have been used by the author in lectures and addresses bearing on the Negroes in art. There is in it, however, much that is new, for even in this formerly used material the author has incorporated additional facts and more extensive comment. This work is not given out as the last word. It is one of a series to appear under the caption of the "Black Folk in Art" or an effort to set forth the contributions of the blacks to art in ancient and modern times. This work itself is, as the author calls it, "A Study in Interpretation." His purpose, he says, is to indicate as well as he can, what he thinks are the criteria for the formation of judgment in these matters. Yet his interpretation is to be different from technical criticism, as his effort is primarily directed toward intention, meaning and effect. This thought is the keynote to the comments on the various sculptures illustrated in the work. While one may not agree with the author in his arrangement and may differ from his interpretation, it must be admitted that the book contains interesting information and is a bold step in the right direction. It is a portraiture of freedom as a motive for artistic expression and an effort to symbolize this desire for liberation to animate the citizenry in making. It brings to light numerous facts as to how the thought of the Negro has been dominant in the minds of certain artists and how in the course of time race prejudice has caused the pendulum to swing the other way in the interest of those who would forget what the blacks have thought and felt and done.
The many illustrations constitute the chief value of the work. There appears The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers, Freedom on the dome of the Capitol, The Libyan Sibyl by W. W. Story, The Freedman by J. I. A. Ward, The Freedwoman by Edmonia Lewis, Emancipation in Washington by Thomas Ball, Emancipation in Edinburgh, Scotland, by George E. Bissell, Emancipation panel on the Military Monument in Cleveland by Levi T. Scofield, Emancipation by Meta Warrick Fuller, The Beecher Monument in Brooklyn by J. I. A. Ward, Africa by Randolph Rogers, Africa by Daniel C. French, The Harriet Tubman Tablet, The Frederick Douglass Monument in Rochester, The Attucks Monument in Boston by Robert Kraus, The Faithful Slaves Monument in Fort Mill, South Carolina, l'Africane by E. Caroni, l'Abolizione by R. Vincenzo, Ethiopia and Toussaint L'Ouverture by Anne Whitney, The Slave Auction, The Fugitive's Story, Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations, The Wounded Scout, and Uncle Ned's School by John Rogers, The Slave Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and The Death of Major Montgomery.
The Question Before Congress. A consideration of the Debates and final action by Congress upon various Phases of the Race Question in the United States. By George W. Mitchell. The A. M. E. Book Concern, Philadelphia, 1918. Pp. 237.
This book contains little which has not been extensively treated in various other works of standard authors. It goes over the ground covered in books easily accessible in most local libraries. Yet there is in it something which the historian does not find in these other works. It is this same drama of history as it appears to an intelligent man of color well read in the history of this country although lacking the attitude of a scientific investigator. Whether he has written an accurate book is of little value here. These facts are already known. He has enabled the public to know the Negro's reaction on these things and that in itself is a contribution to history.
As to exactly what the author has treated little needs to be said. He begins with the slavery question in the Federal Convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution of the United States. Then comes the treatment of the slave trade, the debate on the Missouri Compromise, the exclusion of abolition literature from the mails, the attack on the right of petition, the exodus of antislavery men from the South, the murder of Lovejoy, the coming of Giddings to Congress, the Wilmot Proviso, the formation of the Free Soil party, antislavery men in Congress, the effort to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, the slavery question in California, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas Nebraska trouble, the organization of the Republican Party, the Dred Scott Decision, John Brown's Raid and the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Then follows a discussion of facts still more familiar. The author takes up the upheaval of the Civil War and the difficulty with which the Negroes effected a readjustment because of the large number of refugees. He next discusses the rôle of the Negro in politics during the Reconstruction period, the outrages which followed and the failure of the carpetbagger régime. The remaining portion of the book is devoted to the treatment of the Negroes in freedom and the problem of social justice. In fact, almost every phase of Negro political history from the formation of the Union to the present time has been treated by the author.
Negro Population: 1790-1915. By John Cummings, Ph.D., Expert Special Agent, Bureau of Census. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1918. Pp. 844.