Why do artists create memorials?

How can an artwork help a community remember and/or honor an individual or group?

What historical events might prompt an artist to sculpt a memorial or monument?

What can an artwork tell us about an artist’s attitudes toward a historical event?

How have artists in the United States historically treated the subject of slavery in their artwork? How have they treated the subject of freedom?

Grades 5–8

In 1863 during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation, which was meant to free slaves in the South. John Quincy Adams Ward made this sculpture to honor and symbolize that event. Students will imagine that they are the artist and are writing to a newspaper about their new sculpture. Describe how the sculpture looks (be specific). How does it symbolize the Emancipation Proclamation? Why is this sculpture important?

Grades 9–12

Art historian Lewis I. Sharp called The Freedman “the sculptural manifestation of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.” Read the transcription of the Emancipation Proclamation while looking at The Freedman. Do you agree with Sharp’s view? Why or why not? Which part of the Emancipation Proclamation does The Freedman exemplify particularly well? Defend your response by providing visual and literary evidence.