No. 12 John Brown’s victory at Black Jack drove those pro-slavery to new fury, and those who were anti-slavery to new efforts.

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

“John Brown worked not simply for Black men—he worked with them; and he was a companion of their daily life, knew their faults and virtues, and felt, as few white Americans have felt, the bitter tragedy of their lot.” —W. E. B. Du Bois, John Brown, 1909 Radical abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) fought and died for the emancipation of enslaved people. His life as an antislavery advocate and armed insurrectionist who was tried, convicted, and hanged for his rebellion has served as inspiration for numerous artists since his death. However, it would not be until 1941, when Jacob Lawrence created a narrative series of 22 paintings, that Brown’s life was visually documented in its entirety. Between 1974 and 1977, Lawrence recreated his series in print form. A screen print from the series “The Legend of John Brown” by Jacob Lawrence. The print depicts men fighting on brown, tan, and grey rocks under a blue sky. At the top, one man with a dark green shirt is grabbing another man, who wears a black shirt with red, with a knife in his proper right hand. Below them, a man in a dark green shirt and black pants is lying on rocks. At the bottom are two men fighting, one man with a black shirt and dark green pants with his back to the viewer fighting a man with a white shirt and black pants. To the right of them is a man with a black shirt laying face down over a rock, his proper left arm hanging down. On the front of the print, the artist wrote the series number and edition in the lower left corner [#12 51/60] and signed and dated in the lower right corner [Jacob Lawrence 1977].

Catalog date

1977

Recorded places

New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; Antislavery; Art; Resistance; Slavery; U.S. History, 1815-1861; Violence

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