Saturday, November 6, 2010

Achingly Haunting, Historically Appalling

This is a Repost from March 30. 
I wasn't getting many hits until June, so once in a while I'll repost some of my earlier ramblings. I actually thought I had done this with this post already, but can't find it in the blog anywhere. These are all from my collection of vintage postcards.

Captioned, "Romeo and Juliet in cotton field"
Captioned, "Picking Cotton"
Captioned, "Down where the cotton blossoms grow"

Please click on all three of these images to see them in greater detail. The imagery and art and printing style are from another time. Their faces will haunt you. They should.

C O L L E C T I O N — Posted today are three postcards printed in the USA in the early 'teens of the 20th century. They were found in a packet of twelve similar postcards—postcards for what? I have no idea. None were ever sent to anyone, none of them have any inscriptions on the back. All of them are in fairly pristine condition. The three cards I've posted were separated, but the perforations on the rest were still intact having held them together for close to 100 years. They are still able to be unfolded from the cardboard stock folder they were packaged in. Were they meant as 'vacation mementos' as postcards serve today? Were they bought for their 'beauty' and when you see the originals up close, there IS a beauty to the printing, the hand coloring, the loving faces of those trapped in a life not of their own making. From everything I know, and have learned, about my family's history, I can say the irony of these cards would not have been lost on them. Is that why none were ever sent, instead saved for the future?

These cards show the vile side of the South barely fifty years removed from the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression as a contemporary confederate group in South Carolina is now referring to it, but I won't go there for THIS post). I'm haunted by the entire concept of these cards. Who decided people kept in abject poverty by a backwards Southern society, having to pick cotton for their familie's survival, would be a fine subject for postcards? The people illustrated were clearly close—families, lovers, friends—but at what cost to their lives and dignity posing for the original artist? Jim Crow laws were still very much in use, and no women at all had the right to vote when these were produced. Separate But Equal wasn't just a saying, it was the way of life for people, as were lynchings, rapes and slavery-in-everything-but-name. 

I'm really at odds with these historical pieces. I'm revolted by what they stand for, but they ARE part of the historical archives that make up this country's past. They can't be tossed into the garbage, as much as what they illustrate needs to be. As an artist, what would I have done had I been alive then and given the assignment to colorize the photos and create the lithographs for the cards? The postcard with the multigenerational family 'working' together, is captioned "Down where the cotton blossoms grow" as if they were on a family picnic or enjoying their own property.

These cards piss me off, they fascinate me, they scare me; they're utterly dismissable yet they must never be forgotten. The pieces of art I will create from these still elude me three years after first scanning them. I know I need to do something with them, but my usual process is absolutely stymied by their imagery.

Romeo and Juliet in cotton field. We must never forget.

7 comments:

  1. I know the phrase was "separate but equal" but to me that was simply a cruel joke because while things were CERTAINLY separate, they were most defintely NOT equal. We drove to South Carolina in the summer of 1964 (in our 64 Falcon convertible) to visit my brother in basic training at Fort Jackson and there were still water fountains with signs "for colored" and motels with signs out front that had the silhouette of a black bird on them. I'm sure you can guess what that meant. It was pretty shocking to folks who had grown up in the North. Not that there weren't awful racial attitudes among northerners, but in public at least things were not all that separate. These postcards are quite compelling and disturbing. I remember when you posted them originally but I think I might not have yet begun to commment.

    Paul, NYC

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was a sign of capitalism going down the wrong alley. Dependency of cheap labor for a so-called flourishing nation is a despicable act.

    My neighbor's family have had a diamond mine in Africa from the last century. These people refuse to work and are quite young. Beside F***** all day, they have no idea of the people they "employ" that work non-stop in intense heat so that they can continue their mischievous behavior. I will have no pity once the mine runs dry.

    We live in a sick world my friends.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SICK WORLD YES BUT I LIKE TO THINK I MAKE IT A BIT BETTER. I'M BETTER THAN 911.
    I CAN REMEMBER ALSO PAUL WHEN I SAW THE WATER FOUNTAINS THE FIRST TIME AND BATHROOMS WITH THE SIGNS. I JUST COULDN'T BELIEVE IT. I WAS IN MY 20'S. I CAN REMEMBER JUST BEING IN S.C. FOR THE FIRST TIME [OUR FIRST MOVE]. I WENT INTO TOWN TO SHOP. AS I WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE THE DRUGSTORE I HELD THE DOOR OPEN FOR A BLACK LADY. SHE JUST STOOD THERE AND SAID, WHITES DON'T HOLD DOORS FOR BLACKS. I WAS SHOCK. I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS THE CASE IN S.C.. ANYWAYS, I SAID TO HER, I'M WHITE AND I'M HOLDING THE DOOR FOR YOU TO GO THROUGH. SHE SMILE AND WALKED ON THROUGH. GUESS WHAT THE WORLD IS STILL HERE. NOW WE HAVE TERROIST FULL OF HATE.

    GRANNY

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I saw the photo of these two small boys in the article I was quite moved.

    http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/rare_photo_of_slave_children_f.html

    I printed it out and framed it and it sits with my family photos. My daughter saw it one day and asked about it and why I had it there. I told her so I would never forget that there was a time in our history that the selling of young children/human beings like this was consider just a way of life.

    Yes, we have made progress but there is still a long way to go. There are still too many tainted hearts beating and spewing out prejudice, too, too many.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think there will always be a struggle for someone. The hard part is getting through it gracefully whatever stage we're on at the time. Those are my words of wisdom.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I must not have been paying attention the day you posted this. Beautifully horrifying. Thanks Casey.

    ReplyDelete
  7. thank you Ish! posts like this are hard for me to write, but I'm really glad when I can do it.

    ReplyDelete