The Great Southern Exodus
Item
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Title
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The Great Southern Exodus
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Description
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“The Great Southern Exodus” was drawn by Henry J. Lewis for the Indianapolis Freeman. It depicts smaller scenes pictured above a larger scene, the smaller ones commenting on reasons for the larger. The large scene in the picture is that of a crowd of African Americans marching forward in a train station, train present in the left of the photo. In the upper left corner is a drawing of an African American in a real estate office to buy land, the caption under it reads “The Negro in Kansas.” This contrasts with the drawing in the upper right corner of an African American “in Dixie’s Land” playing the banjo for dancing white women. The drawing in Kansas, which was outside of the southern states, represents how an African American can become independent and prosper by owning his own land. The opposite is shown in Dixie where the African American is at the service of the white population. In the top center, under the caption “Why they are leaving the south,” are pictures of African Americans being whipped, lynched, and chased by dogs. These portrayals highlight the cruelty of slavery they wish to escape. The setting of the train station is important in meaning as it conveys the train as being a way of access to the north. The migration of African Americans from the south to the north, fleeing the land of slavery, parallels that of the departure of the Israelites in The Exodus. The drawing comments on this through its title and makes the viewer understand significant likeness between the Bible and the African American migration.
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Creator
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Henry J. Lewis
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Publisher
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Indianapolis Freeman
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Format
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Printed drawing
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Source
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http://songswithoutwords.org/items/show/214
Giggie, John M. "When Jesus Handed Me a Ticket." The Visual Culture of American Religions.
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Date
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5 November 1892
