Transcript The Shaw Memorial

The Shaw Memorial
AN EXAMPLE OF ARTISTIC
MEANINGS IN MULTIPLE
GENRES, ACROSS TIME,
AROUND AN EVENT OF
SIGNIFICANCE
Robert Gould Shaw
• Born to a prominent Abolitionist family in 1837.
– Did not share beliefs of abolition.
• Studied at the University of Harvard from 1856-1859
– After 1859 Shaw dropped out, because he was unsure of what he
wanted to do with his life.
• At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 he enlisted in the
7th New York Infantry.
– Served for 30 days in defense of Washington D.C.. Regiment was
abolished after the 30 days.
• On May of 1861 Shaw became a second lieutenant in the 2nd
Massachusetts Infantry, in which he served 2 years, and later attained
rank of Captain.
• In March of 1863 Shaw was appointed to raise and command the 54th
regiment.
– The first regiment of African American troops in the Union Army.
Civil War Trust." Robert Gould Shaw. Civilwar.com, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/robert-gould-shaw.html>.
Slide by: Bert Stewart
Colonel Shaw
• Recruited by John Andrew, abolitionist, to become
captain of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment
• Shaw displayed hesitation to leading AfricanAmerican men, but essentially took the position to
please his mother, Sarah Shaw.
• He eventually became not only a leader to the 54th
Regiment, but also a member fighting along side his
men.
• Colonel Shaw’s actions as a leader left him an
American Hero who lived, fought, and died with his
troop.
Slide by Alynn Peckham
Massachusetts 54th Regiment
•African-American Union Civil War Regiment
•Led by white officers, most notably Robert Gould
Shaw (1837-1863)
•54th organized in 1863, idea proposed and discussed by
Union leaders, Abolitionists, and prominent AfricanAmericans, including Frederick Douglass
 In training February-May 1863
 In parade in Boston – May 1863 (Douglass and
John Greenleaf Whittier present)
 To battlefield along SC & GA coast – June 1863
 Assault on Fort Wagner – July 16, 1863 (Harriet
Tubman & Clare Barton present)
54th Regiment
The 54th Regiment is historic because:
The regiment consisted of the first free
black volunteer soldiers of the Civil
War. Among the soldiers were two of
Frederic Douglass’s sons.
Although their first battle ended in
defeat and resulted in the death of many
of the troops, they proved themselves to
be effective soldiers.
They earned respect and were granted
equal pay.
They served as an example and
inspired other black men to volunteer to
fight in the war.
"The 54th Massachusetts Regiment "The Men that Made History"." The
History of the Wild West. Black-hawk-design, n.d. Web. 11 Nov 2012.
<www.black-hawk-design.net>.
Slide by AracelyVasquez
Shaw and the 54th
• Initially took position as commander of the 54th to please his mother,
who was an abolitionist.
– Originally did not share passion for abolition.
• Eventually grew to respect his men and believed they could fight as
well as white soldiers.
• Fought and held boycott until his soldiers received equal pay.
• On May 28, 1863 Shaw lead his troops on a parade in Boston where
they departed for South Carolina.
• 54th was originally tasked for manual labor and did not see action until
July 16th at James Island.
• Shaw and the 54th was chosen to lead the assault on Battery Wagner.
– 54th regiment proved to be as brave as any white troops, but Shaw
was killed in the assault.
• Shaw was buried in mass grave under his black troops.
Civil War Trust." Robert Gould Shaw. Civilwar.com, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/robert-gould-shaw.html>.
Slide by: Bert Stewart
Robert Gould Shaw:
New York Times Language
• “Shaw marveled at their courage as they marched ‘straight up
into the shower of bullets, as if it were so much rain; men, who
until this year, had lived lives of perfect ease and luxury.’”
• “Perhaps no soldier was as profoundly moved by the losses at
Cedar Mountain as Robert Gould Shaw. He later left the Second
and became the colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the
first regiment of African-Americans raised in the state.”
Coddington, Ronald S. “Robert Gould Shaw’s Gruesome Task” New York Times. August 12, 2012.
Slide by Danielle
Assault on Ft. Wagner, 1863
• Colonel Shaw and
many of his men
killed
• Confederate
soldiers buried
Shaw and Black
soldiers in a
common grave,
considering this
an insult to Shaw
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was on hand for the battle at
Ft. Wagner. It is believed that she served
Colonel Shaw his last meal.
When the battle at Ft. Wagner
was over, Tubman is quoted as
saying
“And then we saw the lightning,
and that was the guns; and then
we heard the thunder, and that was
the big guns; and then we heard the
rain falling, and that was the drops
of blood falling; and when we came
to get the crops, it was dead men
that we reaped.”
Harriet Tubman
worked as a nurse at
Port Royal. She cared
for soldiers with
dysentery and small
pox.
She worked with
General David Hunter
(a strong abolition
supporter), who
declared all slaves
captured in Port
Royal freed and he
began gathering them
for a regiment of black
soldiers.
Slide by JoAnne Hileman
List of the
Casualties from
the Assault on
Fort Wagner
Slide by Lauren Rhodes
STATISTICS OF THE ASSAULT ON FORT
WAGNER
• 272 of the 600 were killed , captured, or wounded
• Of those:
• 116 were killed
• 15 captured
• 149 were wounded
• 52 men were reported missing in action
Slide by Lauren Rhodes
The attack on
Fort Wagner,
while a military
disaster, was
successful in
increasing the
number of black
enlistments in
the Union army
by tenfold after
the battle.
Slide by Ana Bogart
William Carney
 Member of
Massachusetts 54th
 First AfricanAmerican to receive
the Medal of Honor
 Noted for rescuing
the flag when Col.
Shaw fell at Ft.
Wagner
William H. Carney
 Born on February 29, 1840 into slavery in Norfolk,
Virginia.

Escaped from slavery through the Underground
Railroad with his father.
 Originally wanted to become a minister but joined the
Union Army instead, specifically the 54th Infantry
Regiment.
 Died during the battle at Fort Wagner trying to
protect the Massachusetts 54th Infantry Regiment
Flag.
 He was honored the Medal of Honor after his death.
Slide by Maria Fernandez
Martyrdom and Legacy
- Shaw became a symbol of the “social justice”
and equality that many people strove for.
- Though it is doubtful that he would actually
follow the ideals of his successors, Shaw’s
image and memory became more important than
he himself.
Slide by Vien Wheat
Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
The Shaw Memorial, 1884-98
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
• Saint-Gaudens born
in Dublin, Ireland, to
mixed Irish/French
parentage
 Moved to US with
parents while still an
infant
 One of America’s
best-known public
sculptors in the 19th
century
 Commissioned for
Shaw Memorial in
1884, unveiling in
Boston 1898
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
Diana
Farragut
Memorial
Liberty
Coin
The Puritan
Augustus St. Gaudens and Racism
• St. Gaudens included the names of
the white officers in the completed
Shaw Memorial. There was no
mention of any Negro officers.
• St. Gaudens referred to the models
for the Negro soldiers as “darkeys,”
and commented on their
“imaginative, though simple,
minds” and “amusing lies” about
taking part in the assault at Fort
Wagner.
• The bigotry of St. Gaudens is ironic,
considering the message of his Shaw
Memorial.
Slide by Nathan
The Shaw Memorial’s Conception
• Augustus St. Gaudens depicted
Shaw as an all-important figure,
watched over by the divine.
• Robert Gould Shaw’s family
objected to St. Gaudens’ making
the memorial into an equestrian
statue, calling it “pretentious.” They
felt a man of Shaw’s rank was not
deserving of such an honor.
– It was in response to this that St.
Gaudens included the Negro
soldiers in the memorial. In his
words, he “reconciled [his] desire
with their ideas.”
Slide by Nathan
Details of Shaw Memorial
Position of Colonel Shaw
Legs of Soldiers and Horses
Precursors and
Background
Poets Inspired by the Events
 James Russell Lowell
 William Vaughn Moody
 John Berryman
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Paul Laurence Dunbar
 Paul Laurence Dunbar
 Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
 Robert Lowell
 Benjamin Brawley
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.
Emerson - from Voluntaries
Longfellow’s Observation of the 54th in Boston, 1863
“Saw the first regiment of
blacks march through
Beacon Street. An
imposing sight, with
something wild and
strange about it, like a
dream. At last the North
consents to let the Negro
fight for freedom.”
“Robert Gould Shaw”(1900)
by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Why was it that the thunder voice of Fate
Should call thee, studious, from the classical groves,
Where calm-eyed Pallas with still footstep roves,
And charge thee seek the turmoil of the state?
What bade thee hear the voice and rise elate,
Leave home and kindred and thy spicy loaves,
To lead th’ unfettered and despised droves
To manhood’s home thunder at the gate?
“Robert Gould Shaw”(1900)
by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Far better the slow blaze of Learning’s light
The cool and quiet of her dearer fane,
Than this hot terror of a hopeless fight
This cold endurance of the final pain—
Since thou and those who died for right
Have died, the Present teaches, but in vain!
My Hero
by Benjamin Brawley

 The poem entitled “My Hero,”
published in 1922, was written by
a black Harlem Renaissance writer,
Benjamin Griffith Brawley, in
honor of the white Civil War
colonel of the all-black 54th
regiment, Robert Gould Shaw. The
poem is noteworthy for the time
period because Brawley gives
homage to a white colonel who
fought to give black soldiers the
honor and respect due them,
ultimately laying his life down for
a cause he believed in.
Slide by Ana Bogart
My Hero
by Benjamin Brawley April 22, 1882 - February 1, 1939

FLUSHED with the hope of high desire,
He buckled on his sword,
To dare the rampart ranged with fire,
Or where the thunder roared;
Into the smoke and flame he went,
For God’s great cause to die—
A youth of heaven’s element,
The flower of chivalry.
And Lancelot and Sir Bedivere
May pass beyond the pale,
And wander over moor and mere
To find the Holy Grail;
But ever yet the prize forsooth
My hero holds in fee;
And he is Blameless Knight in truth,
And Galahad to me.
This was the gallant faith, I trow,
Of which the sages tell;
On such devotion long ago
The benediction fell;
And never nobler martyr burned,
Or braver hero died,
Than he who worldly honor spurned
To serve the Crucified.
Slide by Ana Bogart
Robert Gould Shaw
Edmonia Lewis (ca.1845-1911)
 Free Black father,
Ojibwa mother;
birth name
“Wildfire”
 Among first
American women to
attend college, at
Oberlin - first US
college to admit
African-Americans,
and women
 Bust of Shaw from
1864
Three Places in New England
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
(1914, revised 1929,
premiered 1931)
First Movement
‘The St. Gaudens in Boston
Common (Col. Shaw and his
Colored Regiment)’
Charles Ives - Three Places in New England
Dedicatory Poem
Moving, - Marching - Faces of Souls!
Marked with generations of pain,
Part-freers of a Destiny,
Slowly, restlessly - swaying us on with you
Towards other Freedom!
The man on horseback, carved from
A native quarry of the world Liberty
And from what your country was made.
You images of a Divine Law
Carved in the shadow of a saddened heart Never light abandoned Of an age and of a nation.
Above and beyond that compelling mass
Rises the drum-beat of the common-heart
In the silence of a strange and
Sounding afterglow
Moving - Marching - Faces of Souls!
Glory, 1989 Movie
Starring
 Matthew Broderick
 Denzel Washington
 Cary Elwes,
 Morgan Freeman
Questions and Theories
 Recirculation of Ideas
 What questions of nationality and identity
are at issue?
 What function does the 54th play in
American self-consciousness? Northern?
Southern? White? Black? Male?
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 The Abolitionists, both Black and white, had
imagined an anti-racist future, but the white
majority society moved towards prejudice after the
Civil War
 Plessy v. Ferguson was the Supreme Court
decision that legalized segregation, as long as
facilities were “separate but equal”
 It represented the apogee of a resurgent white
supremacism, that now pretended to scientific
bases for its racism
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Excerpts from the decision
 “if one race be inferior to the other socially,
the Constitution of the United States
cannot put them upon the same plane”
 “the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s
argument…(is) the assumption that the
enforced separation of the two races
stamps the colored race with a badge of
inferiority. If this be so…(it is) solely
because the colored race chooses to put
that construction upon it.”
 Laws upholding segregation “do not
necessarily imply the inferiority of either
race to the other”
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
 Lone dissenting vote on
the Plessy v. Ferguson
decision, John Marshall
Harlan (1833-1911) was
born in Kentucky and
had been a slave-holder
through the Civil War,
even while serving in the
Union army.
 He wrote in his dissent
“Our constitution is
color-blind, and neither
knows nor tolerates
classes among citizens.”
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
• Founded by Jan Scruggs
• On July 1, 1980, in the Rose Garden, President
Jimmy Carter signed the legislation (P.L. 96-297)
to provide a site in Constitution Gardens near
the Lincoln Memorial
Slide by Freya
• Official name of the Memorial is the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial
– Also known as VVM or “The Wall”
• Not a war Memorial
but a Memorial to
those who served in
the war, both living
and dead
• The names were NOT carved by hand, but by a
computerized typesetting process developed by
Larry Century, specifically for the Memorial, in
Memphis, Tennessee
Slide by Freya
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial:
Maya Lin
• Lin won a public design
competition for the Vietnam
Memorial in 1981 (21 years old)
• Unconventional design– Memorial
is deep in the Earth to symbolize
the gravity of loss of the soldiers
• Controversy because Lin was of
Asian Decent (Chinese-American)
• Lin is now a prestigious
architectural designer – won the
National Medal of Arts in 2009
Slide by Danielle
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial