Hidden in plain sight : concealing enslavement in American visual culture / Rachel Stephens.
| Author/creator |
Stephens, Rachel (Rachel Elizabeth) author. |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | Fayetteville : The University of Arkansas Press, 2023. |
| Copyright Notice | ©2023 |
| Description | xii, 319 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 31 cm |
| Subject(s) |
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| Portion of title | Concealing enslavement in American visual culture |
| Contents | "Pictorial Record Should Issue from the South": Art and Visual Culture of the Slavery Defense -- "Tyranny without Mercy": Proslavery Destruction in Response to Abolitionism -- "Concealed by Some of Their Negroes": Sarcastic Indictments of Slavery and Southern Concealment -- "The Family White and Black": Antebellum Photographs of Enslaved Women -- "Entire Secrecy Had to Be Preserved": Adalbert Volck's Confidential Work for the Confederacy -- "Whatever Is Un-Virginian is Wrong": Loyal Slaves, Confederate Heroes, and Lost Cause Ideology in the Art of Confederate Virginia. |
| Abstract | "In the decades leading up to the Civil War, abolitionists crafted a variety of visual messages about the plight of enslaved people, portraying the violence, familial separation, and dehumanization that they faced. In response, proslavery southerners attempted to counter these messages either through idealization or outright erasure of enslaved life. In Hidden in Plain Sight: Concealing Enslavement in American Visual Culture, Rachel Stephens addresses an enormous body of material by tracing themes of concealment and silence through paintings, photographs, and ephemera, connecting long overlooked artworks with both the abolitionist materials to which they were responding and archival research across a range of southern historical narratives. Stephens begins her fascinating study with an examination of the ways that slavery was visually idealized and defended in antebellum art. She then explores the tyranny -- especially that depicted in art -- enacted by supporters of enslavement, introduces a range of ways that artwork depicting slavery was tangibly concealed, considers photographs of enslaved female caretakers with the white children they reared, and investigates a printmaker's confidential work in support of the Confederacy. Finally, she delves into an especially pernicious group of proslavery artists in Richmond, Virginia. Reading visual culture as a key element of the antebellum battle over slavery, Hidden in Plain Sight complicates the existing narratives of American art and history." -- Back cover. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-308) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Stephens, Rachel (Rachel Elizabeth) Hidden in plain sight Fayetteville : The University of Arkansas Press, 2023 9781610757980 |
| Genre/form | History |
| LCCN | 2022061347 |
| ISBN | 9781682262337 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1682262332 (hardcover) |
| Other class# | HI.F 3/178-8:H 52/2023 |
Available Items
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
| Joyner | Ronnie Barnes African American Collection | N8243.S576 S74 2023 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |