MS01.01.03.B01.F25.005

The early portrayal of the role of Blacks in America is best
depicted in the many illustrations which graphic artists executed
as important visual documents for books and administrative
memorabilia. From such works, we are able to glean the historical
picture of the black worker/slave while at the same time viewing
the mercantile system in which the slave fitted and spent his daily
existence. An etching done by an unknown artist about 1750 shows
a (SLIDE #2) [ul] Tobacco Warf on the Chesapeake Bay [/ul]. Here,
slaves partially clothed served their master, help to load and unload a
cargo of tobacco while ships wait at the word in the background
from where the work takes place. Such scenes were commonplace in the few news oriented journals that were printed in principal cities
such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.

The Post Revolutionary image in general in American art is one
of sophistication and stylistic development which also speaks of
the coming of age of art and artists in America. Charles Wilson
Peale, John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart and Benjamin West, all of
whom went to Europe to study art, had developed in their work
important stylistic characteristics which caused critics from as
far away as London, to stand in awe of and respect the gifted
hands of these young Americans. But it would be the work of an
[deleted: an] English artist, by the name of Valentine Green (1739-
1813), who would next engage our interest in the black image.
Green created this mezzotint after the work by John Trumbull,
entitled (SLIDE E) [ul] General Washington [/ul], the original
portrait by Trumbull
painted in 1780 is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. General
Washington was a popular subject. A French artist by the name of