(RECONSTRUCTION) [The Shackle Broken by the Genius of Freed

Sale 2503 - Lot 373

Price Realized: $ 6,750

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

(RECONSTRUCTION.) [The Shackle Broken--by the Genius of Freedom.] Hand-colored lithograph, 18 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches; cropped with loss of caption, several repaired tears and some later color; not examined out of frame. Baltimore, MD: E. Sachse & Co., 1874

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The main image depicts United States Representative Robert B. Elliott (1842-1884) of South Carolina speaking in favor of the Civil Rights Bill in Congress. One of the few African-Americans who served in the Reconstruction-era Congress, his speech is said to have outshone the opposing speech by Alexander Stephens, former vice president of the Confederacy. The bill was eventually passed in 1875, although it was poorly enforced as the Reconstruction era drew to a close.
The other vignettes in this print depict African-American troops in battle, monuments to Lincoln and Sumner, and a prosperous farm scene entitled "American slave labour is of the past, free labour is of the present. We toil for our own childern [sic] and not for those of others." Reilly 1874-1.