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Art at Capitol honors 140 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?
Exclusive: A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or Confederates.
Art at Capitol honors 140 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?
A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or
Art at Capitol honors 140 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?
A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or
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WP EXCLUSIVE
Art at Capitol honors 141 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?
The Post examined more than 400 statues, paintings and other artworks in the U.S. Capitol. This is what we found.
By Gillian Brockell
Dec. 27 at 7:00 a.m.
When the 118th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, its members will walk the halls of a building whose paintings and statues pay homage to 140 enslavers. ... As part of a yearlong investigation into Congress’s relationship with slavery, The Washington Post analyzed more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building, from the Crypt to the ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda, and found that one-third honor enslavers or Confederates. Another six honor possible enslavers — people whose slaveholding status is in dispute.
Congress has made some efforts to address the legacy of slavery since the 2020 protests that followed the death of George Floyd. The 117th Congress — the most diverse in history — established Juneteenth as a national holiday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had portraits of speakers who participated in the Confederacy removed. Florida replaced a Confederate statue representing the state with one honoring Mary McLeod Bethune, the first African American chosen for the National Statuary Hall Collection.
And on Tuesday, President Biden signed a bill to remove and replace a bust of Supreme Court justice and enslaver Roger B. Taney — infamous for the Dred Scott decision denying Black people citizenship — with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice.
But a House effort to remove statues honoring Confederates stalled in the Senate. One of those Confederate statues stands in front of the office of the House majority whip, currently occupied by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the first Black person to serve multiple terms in that role.
{snip}
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article omitted an enslaver from Missouri, Francis Preston Blair Jr., whose statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. He is now included in the graphics, maps and numbers in this article.
Methodology
For this analysis, enslavers are people who held Black or Indigenous people in bondage. People from ancient history and Indigenous societies depicted in the Capitol are not included; even though some of them participated in forms of slavery practiced in their societies, these were different from than the inherited, race-based, lifelong chattel system that existed in the United States until 1865.
Figures listed as Confederates are people who publicly expressed loyalty to the Confederacy. With one exception, all of the Confederates depicted in the Capitol also played active roles in the Confederate military or government.
Possible enslavers are people about whose slaveholding status historians disagree.
In the database, people are listed as founders if they were present for the drafting or passage of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution, or played an otherwise significant role in the Revolutionary War.
To complete this analysis, The Post used lists of artworks supplied by the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of the Senate Historian and the Office of the House Historian, and also conducted in-person inspections of the building. A variety of academic, archival and biographical sources were used to determine the slaveholding status of each figure who reached adulthood before the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.
Only fine art depicting people or scenes was counted; decorative arts like pillars or painted flora and fauna were not. Some artworks may not have been included in this analysis if they are located in areas closed to the public and the media or not documented by the offices of the Architect of the Capitol, House Historian or Senate Historian.
If you know of an additional artwork in the Capitol building that should be included in this project, please email gillian.brockell@washpost.com.
About this story
Editing by Aaron Wiener. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Graphics editing by Chiqui Esteban. Graphics by Aaron Steckelberg and Chiqui Esteban. Copy editing by Anne Kenderdine. Design and development by Irfan Uraizee, Junne Alcantara, Michael Domine and Garland Potts.
By Gillian Brockell
Gillian Brockell is a staff writer for The Washington Post's history blog, Retropolis. She has been at The Post since 2013 and previously worked as a video editor. Twitter https://twitter.com/gbrockell
Art at Capitol honors 141 enslavers and 13 Confederates. Who are they?
The Post examined more than 400 statues, paintings and other artworks in the U.S. Capitol. This is what we found.
By Gillian Brockell
Dec. 27 at 7:00 a.m.
When the 118th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, its members will walk the halls of a building whose paintings and statues pay homage to 140 enslavers. ... As part of a yearlong investigation into Congress’s relationship with slavery, The Washington Post analyzed more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building, from the Crypt to the ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda, and found that one-third honor enslavers or Confederates. Another six honor possible enslavers — people whose slaveholding status is in dispute.
Congress has made some efforts to address the legacy of slavery since the 2020 protests that followed the death of George Floyd. The 117th Congress — the most diverse in history — established Juneteenth as a national holiday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had portraits of speakers who participated in the Confederacy removed. Florida replaced a Confederate statue representing the state with one honoring Mary McLeod Bethune, the first African American chosen for the National Statuary Hall Collection.
And on Tuesday, President Biden signed a bill to remove and replace a bust of Supreme Court justice and enslaver Roger B. Taney — infamous for the Dred Scott decision denying Black people citizenship — with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice.
But a House effort to remove statues honoring Confederates stalled in the Senate. One of those Confederate statues stands in front of the office of the House majority whip, currently occupied by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the first Black person to serve multiple terms in that role.
{snip}
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this article omitted an enslaver from Missouri, Francis Preston Blair Jr., whose statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. He is now included in the graphics, maps and numbers in this article.
Methodology
For this analysis, enslavers are people who held Black or Indigenous people in bondage. People from ancient history and Indigenous societies depicted in the Capitol are not included; even though some of them participated in forms of slavery practiced in their societies, these were different from than the inherited, race-based, lifelong chattel system that existed in the United States until 1865.
Figures listed as Confederates are people who publicly expressed loyalty to the Confederacy. With one exception, all of the Confederates depicted in the Capitol also played active roles in the Confederate military or government.
Possible enslavers are people about whose slaveholding status historians disagree.
In the database, people are listed as founders if they were present for the drafting or passage of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution, or played an otherwise significant role in the Revolutionary War.
To complete this analysis, The Post used lists of artworks supplied by the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of the Senate Historian and the Office of the House Historian, and also conducted in-person inspections of the building. A variety of academic, archival and biographical sources were used to determine the slaveholding status of each figure who reached adulthood before the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.
Only fine art depicting people or scenes was counted; decorative arts like pillars or painted flora and fauna were not. Some artworks may not have been included in this analysis if they are located in areas closed to the public and the media or not documented by the offices of the Architect of the Capitol, House Historian or Senate Historian.
If you know of an additional artwork in the Capitol building that should be included in this project, please email gillian.brockell@washpost.com.
About this story
Editing by Aaron Wiener. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Graphics editing by Chiqui Esteban. Graphics by Aaron Steckelberg and Chiqui Esteban. Copy editing by Anne Kenderdine. Design and development by Irfan Uraizee, Junne Alcantara, Michael Domine and Garland Potts.
By Gillian Brockell
Gillian Brockell is a staff writer for The Washington Post's history blog, Retropolis. She has been at The Post since 2013 and previously worked as a video editor. Twitter https://twitter.com/gbrockell