Frederick Douglass Letter to Louis Prang June 14th, 1870 “I shall find it no hardship to say a good word for the portrait of Senator [Hiram] Revels… We colored men so often see ourselves described and painted as monkeys, that we think it is a great piece of good fortune to find an exception to this general rule… This portrait, representing truly, as it does, the face and form of our first colored U.S. Senator is a historical picture. It marks, with almost startling emphasis, the point dividing our new form from our old condition. Every colored householder in the land should have one of these portraits in his parlor and should explain it to his children, as the dividing line between the darkness and despair that overhung our past, and the light and hope that now beams upon our future as a people…” Close Reading: According to the author of the document, how did African Americans at the time often see themselves portrayed or painted in images? How do you think this made African Americans feel in the 1870s?
Document 1: Frederick Douglass Letter to Louis Prang June 14th, 1870
“I shall find it no hardship to say a good word for the portrait of Senator [Hiram] Revels… We colored men so often see ourselves described and painted as monkeys, that we think it is a great piece of good fortune to find an exception to this general rule… This portrait, representing truly, as it does, the face and form of our first colored U.S. Senator is a historical picture. It marks, with almost startling emphasis, the point dividing our new form from our old condition. Every colored householder in the land should have one of these portraits in his parlor and should explain it to his children, as the dividing line between the darkness and despair that overhung our past, and the light and hope that now beams upon our future as a people…”
- Close Reading: According to the author of the document, how did African Americans at the time often see themselves portrayed or painted in images? How do you think this made African Americans feel in the 1870s?
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