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Audio Stop 221

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Carved from creamy white marble, a nude woman stands next to a hip-high support, perhaps a low post. In this photograph, her body faces us, and she looks down to our right in profile. Her wavy hair is tucked behind her ear and drawn back in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her weight rests on her left leg, on our right, and her other knee is bent. Her left arm is angled in front of her body so her hand covers her groin. Her other hand, on our left, rests on the post. Chains hang from shackles encircling her wrists. The post is covered with a cloth that gathers around the top and spirals to the ground beneath her feet, the edge trimmed with tassels. A cross and medallion peek out from under the cloth near her hand. She stands on a circular base.

Hiram Powers

The Greek Slave, model 1841-1843, carved 1846

Not On View

Historian Ka’mal McClarin of the National Park Service discusses the public impact of Hiram Powers’s sculpture and how it was a favorite of activist Frederick Douglass.

Read full audio transcript

NARRATOR:
Hiram Powers made multiple versions of The Greek Slave, one of the most famous American statues. This one dates to 1846.

The Greek war of independence against Turkey provided inspiration for Powers… but for many 19th-century viewers, this enslaved woman also symbolized the struggle of African-American people against slavery in the United States.

The sculpture was widely exhibited in the U.S. and in Europe, and small replicas were sold. One such statuette belonged to the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.

KA’MAL McLARIN:
My name is Ka’mal McClarin.  I’m a program manager for the National Park Service for the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. I’m the former curator of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, also known as Cedar Hill.  

Visiting Douglass at Cedar Hill, you would have seen bounties of artworks representing the quote/unquote “abolitionist call,” and Douglass often used those artworks to really keep the memory of the abolitionist movement alive along with imparting lessons on the quote/unquote “past movement.” As he transitioned from an enslaved person to Abolitionist, that iconic symbol had a direct connection to his heart in many ways.

Particularly in the 1840s, it pretty much was seen at many exhibitions abroad as well as domestically, and it really creates this national/international discussion about how we should actually perceive that Greek Slave statue.  

NARRATOR:
The role of American art in challenging traditions of enslavement can be traced back to The Greek Slave and the avalanche of debate it stirred up - some of which centered around the great question of the abolition of slavery in the United States. The woman’s full nudity may have startled some visitors. But her demure expression and pose, and the understanding that she was stripped by her captors, instead suggested that what was immoral was the injustice of enslavement rather than her exposed flesh.  

KA’MAL McLARIN:
Hiram Powers pretty much starts the conversation. And calls our moral fortitude into question during the 1840s all the way up to the 1850s and 1860s. And I see it in today’s time - the legacy of slavery and that discussion around all these works of art really continue in many ways.

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