Emancipation

Besides Winslow Homer, Thomas Nast is perhaps the best known of Harper’s Weekly artists: “This week we publish . . . a drawing by Thomas Nast, the subject of which is the great event of the day—EMANCIPATION. In the centre of the picture is a . . . free and happy home. Here domestic peace and comfort reign supreme. . . . On the wall hangs a portrait of President Lincoln, whom the family can not sufficiently admire and revere. . . . On the left are incidents of everyday occurrence in slave life; and, in happy contrast, on the right we see some of the inevitable results of freedom and civilization.”