the Upper South, but also invite the viewer to contemplate the mixed racial ancestry of those portrayed. Several elements hint at or symbolize relations to an unseen wealthier white father—the mulatto children, the ladder from the Negro quarters up to a larger house next door and, symbolically, the rooster high in the tree near the taller house and hen on the Negroes' house roof. Both proponents and detractors of slavery perceived this painting as supporting their world views, because the Negroes seem cheerful enough, but their house is dilapidated. A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves (1862), which depicts a slave family riding at dawn to freedom, also invites interpretation. Johnson places the slave family squarely in the center of the work, acting as agents of their own destiny. It appears to be dawn and in the distance is light on bayonets, indicating Union lines. A man rides with a child in front of him; behind him, a woman holds an infant close to her chest. She looks behind her as if worried about pursuers, or wondering what she left behind. Curator Eleanor Harvey writes the painting "captures the moment when the full scope of the slavery question begins to loom. Johnson placed these people squarely in the foreground and, in doing so, elevated their plight in the national debate." Johnson noted at the time that the painting is based on his observations during the Civil War Battle of Manassas. His work, The Lord is My Shepherd (1863), shows an African-American man reading from the Bible, presumably from Psalm chapter 23, given the name of Eastman's work. Here he sits against a blue jacket that may indicate service in the Union army. It was painted soon after the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, by which many blacks made their exodus from slavery to freedom. Reading was seen as key to the ability of freedmen to make progress. Gallery Notes References Attribution External links b1285373 1 Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825–1861], an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Eastman Johnson (see index) 1824 births 1906 deaths Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters People from Augusta, Maine Artists from Wisconsin People from Lovell, Maine People from Fryeburg, Maine 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists Düsseldorf school of painting