Leaving the Old Home
Date1904
Artist
Harry C. Edwards
(American painter and illustrator, 1868–1922)
Illustration CitationOrder no. 11: A Tale of the Border, by Caroline Abbot Stanley (New York: Century, 1904)
MediumGouache on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 18 1/2 × 13 1/8 in. (47 × 33.3 cm)
Credit LineAcquistion Fund, 1991
Object number1991-8
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThe title Order no. 11 refers to the martial law issued by the Union Army in 1863 during the Civil War, directing residents of rural Missouri who pledged loyalty to the Northern cause to leave their farms and relocate to villages near Union military posts. Southern sympathizers were required to go to Confederate states. The order was meant to deprive Confederate operatives of any support in Missouri, which had abolished slavery earlier that year. Harry C. Edwards portrays a family originally from Virginia who must abandon their Missouri home. The smoking landscape and dismayed expressions suggest the hardship of the journey. Standing at left are two former enslaved persons who have decided not to accompany the family, preferring to take their chances on their own and remain in Missouri.
