The Freedman

Ward began modeling The Freedman shortly before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, freeing more than 3.5 million enslaved people in the Confederate states. The broken shackle in the figure’s clenched hand and the one remaining on his left wrist offer succinct commentary on the era’s chief political and moral topic. Although emancipated and gazing ahead, the Black man is represented seated and seminude, reinforcing a transitional status between enslavement and full standing in citizenship and humanity.