Panel 1, 1955

. . . is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

—Patrick Henry, 1775

Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Panel 2, 1954

Massacre in Boston

Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Panel 3, 1954

Rally Mohawks! Bring out your axes, and tell King George we’ll pay no taxes on his foreign tea …

—a song of 1773

Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Panel 1, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentle-men may cry, peace, peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north, will bring our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains, and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!-I know not what course others may take; but as for me,” cried he, with both his arms extended aloft, his brows knit, every feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and his voice swelled to its boldest note of exclamation- “give me liberty, or give me death!”

Excerpt from “Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA, on March 23, 1775,” in William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: J. Webster, 1817)

Attorney and orator Patrick Henry gave his 1775 speech on behalf of the educated elite at the Virginia Convention to rally the colonists’ spirit of resistance and patriotism. The words that made the speech famous are his war cry against the British, “give me liberty, or give me death!” Yet, for the title caption to Panel 1, Lawrence chose a less familiar line—the words that equated the lack of true liberty with slavery.

Panel 1, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Mose Wright testifying in court, September 21, 1955, photograph by Ernest Withers. Courtesy of Bettmann Archive/Getty Images, Inc.

Mose Wright testifying in court, September 19, 1955. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

A new protagonist arose in the fight for human freedom and dignity amid the scorching headlines about the violent murder of Emmett Till in August 1955, his widely attended funeral, and the subsequent trial. On September 19, 1955, Till’s uncle, Mose Wright, courageously stood up in court to identify the men who came to his home on the night of August 28, 1955, to abduct the boy. Wright pointed his finger at Roy Bryant and John W. Milan and answered the judge, “There they are.” Newspaper photographer Ernest Withers captured the moment in this photograph. This ink and wash illustration shows another view from the courtroom. There is an uncanny similarity between the pointing gesture in these initially unpublished images and in Lawrence’s portrayal of attorney and speechwriter Patrick Henry proclaiming liberty.

Panel 2, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

“Crispus Attucks” clipping files 1925–1974, recreated from microfiche, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library

This composite image of 1930s articles from The Guardian, a black newspaper published in Boston, shows how a clipping file on Crispus Attucks would have looked at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library, now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Citizen researchers read through press there to look for articles relevant to black history and culture and then they cut out, organized by subject, and pasted the stories into albums known as clipping files. Lawrence used these files to center Attucks in the midst of revolt in Panel 2 and position him as the first martyr of the American Revolution.

Petition For Annual Attucks Day
By Governor’s Proclamation

Of the Boston Branch of the National Equal Rights League and others, for legislation to authorize an annual proclamation by the Governor of Massachusetts for the observance of the 5th day of March as the anniversary of the death of Crispus Attucks, Colored american, first martyr to the founding of the United States.

Excerpt from George L. Ruffin, “Crispus Attucks,” The Guardian, 1942

Panel 2, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Paul Revere, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770, by a party of the 29th Regt., 1770, hand-colored engraving, PEM, gift of W.P. Richardson, 112344

Herschel Levit, Crispus Attucks, 1943, oil on canvas mural, Recorder of Deeds Building, 515 D Street NW, Washington, DC. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Carol M. Highsmith Archive

Paul Revere’s widely distributed 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre was used as propaganda during the revolution and does not depict Crispus Attucks, who is central to Lawrence’s composition. Attucks is also the primary figure in Herschel Levit’s mural Crispus Attucks—First Patriot Killed in Boston Massacre March [5], 1770 commissioned for the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, DC. Lawrence diverged from these precedents in scale and composition.

Panel 3, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Page from “Rallying Son of the Tea Party at the Green Dragon” in Francis Samuel Drake, Tea Leaves: Being A Collection of Letters and Documents (Boston: A. O. Crane, 1884)

On the evening of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams, leader of the Sons of Liberty, rallied a group of colonists, disguised as members of the Mohawk Nation, to board British ships and dump their cargo into Boston Harbor. Lawrence excerpted lyrics from this protest song to title his painting of the Boston Tea Party. Although the actual event was not a confrontation and damaged property only, he reimagined the scene as close and violent combat.

Excerpt from “Rallying Son of the Tea Party at the Green Dragon” in Francis Samuel Drake, Tea Leaves: Being A Collection of Letters and Documents (Boston: A. O. Crane, 1884)

Fragment of a Rallying Song of the
Tea Party at the Green Dragon.

Rally Mohawks! bring out your axes,
And tell King George we’ll pay no taxes
On his foreign tea;
His threats are vain, and vain to think
To force our girls and wives to drink
His vile Bohea!
Then rally boys, and hasten on
To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.

Panel 3, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

The Boston Tea Party, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Company, 1953

This image and caption are included in one of the popular history books Lawrence used to research the Struggle series, although he visualized the scene differently. In Panel 3, Lawrence painted three “Mohawks” entangled with two guards in a melee of brawny arms, painted faces, and multicolored feathers. Though a hand-to-hand struggle probably never took place, Lawrence’s alternative version captures how the colonists created parody songs and claimed Indigenous identity for themselves.

Panel 4, 1954, private collection. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Letter from Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap, about 1798, Massachusetts Historical Society

In 1798, Paul Revere recalled his harrowing midnight ride through British enemy lines on April 18, 1775, in this letter to clergyman and historian Jeremy Belknap. Lawrence excerpted from this letter for the title caption to Panel 4.

Excerpt of Letter from Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap, about 1798, Massachusetts Historical Society

In Medford, I awaked the Captain of the Minute men; & after that, I alarmed almost every House, till I got to Lexington. I found Mrs. Messrs. Hancock & Adams at the Rev. Mr. Clark's; I told them my errand, and inquired for Mr. Daws; they said he had not been there; I related the story of the two officers, & supposed that He must have been stopped, as he ought to have been there before me. After I had been there about half an Hour, Mr. Daws came; after we refreshid our selves, we and set off for Concord.

Panel 4, 1954, private collection. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Grant Wood, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arhut Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950, 50.117. © Estate of Grant Wood. Courtesy of Art Resource, NY

In 1931, American artist Grant Wood based his graceful, aerial, and panoramic Midnight Ride of Paul Revere on the popular and historically inaccurate 1860 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Lawrence's panel hinges on Revere's own recollection of his dramatic arrival in Charlestown where fellow Sons of Liberty provided him with a horse for his legendary ride and emphasizes the sheer physical force of bodies and movement.

Panel 5, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Petition for freedom to Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage, His Majesty's Council, and the House of Representatives, June 1774. Jeremy Belknap papers, Massachusetts Historical Society

An enslaved man who self-identified only as “FELIX” offered this petition for freedom to the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and its House of Representatives on January 6, 1773. Felix declares that enslaved people have "in common with other men, a natural right to be free!" and Lawrence paired the text with an image of a violent uprising.

How many of that Number have there been, and now are in this Province, who have had every Day of their Lives imbittered with this most intollerable Reflection, That, let their Behaviour be what it will, neither they, nor their Children to all Generations, shall ever be able to do, or to possess and enjoy any Thing, no, not even Life itself, but in a Manner as the Beasts that perish.

We have no Property! We have no Wives! No Children! We have no City! No Country! But we have a Father in Heaven, and we are determined, as far as his Grace shall enable us, and as far as our degraded contemptuous Life will admit, to keep all his Commandments

Excerpt from “Felix’s Petition,” excerpted in Herbert Aptheker, A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, Volume 1 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943)

Panel 6, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Thomas Jefferson et al., The Declaration of Independence, 1776, Textual Records, Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, on parchment, from the National Archives, Washington, DC

The Declaration of Independence is not a legally binding document, but all those identifying themselves as Americans nevertheless continue to be honor bound by a mutual pledge to uphold the principles of equal human rights—“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To title caption Panel 6, Lawrence excerpted the final sentence of the Declaration of Independence.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connections between them and the State of Great Britain, is and out to be totally dissolved and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Excerpt from Thomas Jefferson et al., The Declaration of Independence, 1776, Textual Records, Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, National Archives, Washington, DC

Panel 7, 1954, The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC

On December 23, 1776, patriot Thomas Paine published The American Crisis, a text comprised of firsthand accounts of the Revolutionary War. Lawrence did not excerpt the more famous line for the panel’s title caption, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Instead he chose the last line where Paine testifies to his belief that Americans had to muster more courage to struggle unwaveringly for independence from Britain.

The American CRISIS

By the Author of Common Sense

THESE are the times that try men's souls: the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country..

Excerpt from Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC

Panel 8, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Eye-witnesses have asserted that the rebels on this occasion fought with desperation, advancing to within eight paces of cannon loaded with slugs, so that they might more easily shoot down the artillerymen. The defence of Colonel Baurn was equal, apparently, to such an attack; for three times the enemy were forced to retreat before his fire. At last, however, the cartridges were exhausted, and Baum’s two cannon silent from lack of powder. At this vital moment, the enemy threw themselves fiercely upon our men; and Baum and his dragoons, sword in hand, and the infantry with their bayonets, endeavored to hew a path through the enemy’s lines into the woods. But, alas! at this point the narrative ceases; and up to the present moment we are still uncertain as to the fate of our brave brothers.

Excerpt from William L. Stone and August Hund, “Sent August 31, 1777, from the Camp at Duar House by a Native of Brunswick, Serving in Burgoyne’s Army,” from Letters of Brunswick and Hessian Officers During the American Revolution (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell’s Son’s, 1891)

On August 31, 1777, a German-born mercenary soldier fighting on behalf of the British army wrote this letter discussing the brutal loss to the American rebel forces at the Battle of Bennington. The American government allowed the defeated Hessians to take up residence in Massachusetts and New York following the war, but denied veteran soldiers of color the same pathways to full citizenship.

Panel 8, 1954, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Alonzo Chappel, The Battle of Bennington, August 16, 1777, 1854–58, Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont, gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Keyes, A28

This 19th-century painting by Alonzo Chappel depicts Continental Army General John Stark as the sole hero of the Battle of Bennington. He gives orders to those leading prisoners away at the painting’s left and to the doctor in the foreground who attends a soldier lying on the ground. For his Struggle painting, Lawrence visualized a motley band of colonists as his subjects rather than the individual.

Panel 9, 1954, private collection.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Greg Staley

Letter from George Washington to William Buchanan, February 7, 1778, George Washington Papers, Series 4, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Excerpt from Letter from George Washington to William Buchanan, February 7, 1778, George Washington Papers, Series 4, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Head Quarters, Valley Forge, February 7, 1778.

Sir: The occasional deficiencies in the Article of Provisions, which we have often severely felt, seem now on the point of resolving themselves into this fatal Crisis, total want and a dissolution of the Army. Mr. Blaine informes me, in the most decisive terms, that he has not the least prospect of answering the demands of the Army, within his district, more than a month longer, at the extremity. The expectations, he has from other Quarters, appear to be altogether vague and precarious; and from any thing I can see, we have every reason to apprehend the most ruinous consequences.

This letter from General George Washington to aide-de-camp William Buchanan on February 7, 1778, details the Continental Army’s retreat to Valley Forge after a devastating defeat by the British in Philadelphia in September 1777. Soldiers spent the winter at the encampment, enduring freezing temperatures and starvation. Lawrence symbolized the toll of these military setbacks.

Panel 9, 1954, private collection.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Greg Staley

H. B. Hall, after painting by Alonzo Chappel, Valley Forge-Washington & Lafayette, Winter 1777–78, 1857, engraving, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library

This engraving, published in one of Lawrence’s sources, shows General George Washington pondering the failures of Congress while his army froze and starved at Valley Forge in 1777–78. In his panel, Lawrence focused on the partially covered “dying horse,” extending the experience of struggle to animals.

Panel 10, 1954, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2003.414. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897, 97.34

One of the most enduring symbols of the American Revolution is Washington crossing the Delaware. In 1851, German-American artist Emanuel Leutze painted a monumental version of the event to evoke strong feelings of drama and heroism inspired by the act of one man—George Washington. Lawrence focused intently on the many nameless soldiers who braved the frigid crossing before battle.

Panel 11, 1955, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, gift of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Family in memory of Dr. Gabrielle H. Reem, 2013.95. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Stanford University

Page from Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York: Viking Press, 1941)

Carl Van Doren’s history reproduced this coded message handwritten by military officer-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold to British General Henry Clinton. Arnold informed Clinton and his aide de-camp, John André, of General George Washington’s secret plan to cross the Hudson, a betrayal to which Lawrence alluded in the whispering figure.

120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28.110.8.19.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8 on 131.9.94.287.8.33 to 128 9.24.114.9. 10 289.8.16 he is to .167.9.27. the 116.9.23 12.9.17. and 120.9. the and 290.9.27 160.9.23 at 190.8.32. 153.9. 20

General Washington will be at King’s Ferry Sunday Evening next on his way to Hartford, where he is to meet the French admiral and general. and will lodge at Peekskill.

Arnold’s code note of September 15, 1780, informing the British when Washington would cross the Hudson and might be captured, with Odell’s decoding of the note.

Excerpt from Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York: Viking Press, 1941)

Panel 11, 1955, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, gift of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Family in memory of Dr. Gabrielle H. Reem, 2013.95. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Stanford University

Joseph McCarthy and his chief consul, Roy Cohn, whispering during the Army–McCarthy hearings, June 11, 1954. Courtesy of Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo

This photograph captures Senator Joseph McCarthy (right) and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn (left), whispering during a break from the Army–McCarthy hearings in June 1954, a televised event that may have inspired Lawrence’s image for Panel 11. During McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the men interrogated American citizens suspected to be communists. Their investigations created widespread fear and discredited many of Lawrence’s fellow progressive artists and friends as disloyal Americans.

Panel 12, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

“Margaret Corbin Tribute; West Point Does Honor at Grave of Revolutionary Heroine,” New York Times, May 28, 1950. © The New York Times Company

Lawrence might have seen this 1950 New York Times article that commemorated the recognition of American Revolution veteran Margaret Cochran Corbin at West Point. On November 16, 1776, Corbin accompanied her husband into the Battle of Fort Washington on Manhattan Island. When he was killed in action, she bravely filled his post, loading and firing the cannon with great accuracy. Lawrence saw her as an overlooked contributor to the American Revolution and made her the subject of Panel 12.

WEST POINT, N.Y., May 27— The twenty–fourth anniversary of the discovery of the grave of Margaret Corbin, heroine of the Revolutionary War, was commemorated on Friday by the New York State Officers Club of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The exercises at the Margaret Corbin Monument on the grounds of the United States Military Academy were conducted by Mrs. William Harvey Hoag of Prattsburg, N.Y., vice president of the club. Col. H. Crampton Jones, inspector general at the Academy, was the principal speaker.

Mrs. Charles White Nash of Albany, former New York State Regent of the D.A.R., traced the history of the Corbin grave. The General Henry Knox papers in the Massachusetts Historical Society’s collection established that Margaret Corbin received Army pay during the Revolutionary War under the name of Captain Molly, Mrs. Nash said. Captain Molly also is affirmed by the papers as one of three women who got pensions from the Government for services in the Revolution.

Excerpt from “Margaret Corbin Tribute; West Point Does Honor at Grave of Revolutionary Heroine,” New York Times, May 28, 1950

Panel 12, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

James Charles Armytage, Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth, June 1778, about 1859, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

This 1850s engraving reanimates the roles women played in America’s Revolutionary battles by conflating two veterans as a single heroine. “Molly Pitcher,” the subject in James Charles Armytage’s work, is a composite heroine inspired by Margaret Cochrane Corbin and Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley. For his painting And a Woman Mans a Cannon, Lawrence found inspiration in the historical figures whose stories shed light on the agonies of collective struggle.

Panel 13, 1955, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert/PEM

James S. Baillie, Surrender of Cornwallis, 1845, Gilder Lehrman Collection

James S. Baillie’s 1845 painting Surrender of Cornwallis commemorates when British General Cornwallis yielded to General George Washington on October 19, 1781. Despite Baillie’s image, Cornwallis never attended a ceremony to symbolically hand over his sword. In his panel, Lawrence holds the conflict’s resolution in suspense by depicting the redcoat extending the sword to an outstretched hand.

Panel 14, 1955, painting location unknown. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Lucia | Marquand

David Hartley, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, Treaty of Paris, 1783, International Treaties and Related Records, 1778-1974, General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11, National Archives

Representatives of the American colonies and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. The treaty effectively ended the American Revolution and formally recognized the United States as an independent nation. The lingering cannon in Lawrence’s painting shows the tenuous, only momentary peace and foreshadows the future maritime tensions that led to the War of 1812.

Article 7th:
There shall be a firm and perpetual Peace between his Britanic Majesty and the said States, and between the Subjects of the one and the Citizens of the other, wherefore all Hostilities both by Sea and Land shall from henceforth cease: All prisoners on both Sides shall be set at Liberty, and his Britanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his Armies, Garrisons & Fleets from the said United States, and from every Post, Place and Harbour within the same; leaving in all Fortifications, the American Artillery that may be therein: And shall also Order & cause all Archives, Records, Deeds & Papers belonging to any of the said States, or their Citizens, which in the Course of the War may have fallen into the hands of his Officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and Persons to whom they belong.

Excerpt from David Hartley, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, Treaty of Paris, 1783, International Treaties and Related Records, 1778-1974, General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11, National Archives

Panel 15, 1955, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Francis H. Burr Memorial Fund, Anonymous Fund in memory of Henry Berg, and Alpheus Hyatt Fund, 1995.23. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Harvard Art Museums

Constitutional Convention, Constitution of the United States, General Records of the United States Government, 1778-2006, National Archives Catalog, National Archives

Harrison E. Salisbury, “Citizens Go to Capitol on Constitution Day to Tell of Abuses of Rights; ABUSES OF RIGHTS TOLD TO SENATORS,” New York Times, September 18, 1955. © The New York Times Company

Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the Constitution seen here is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words—“We the People”—affirm that the U.S. government exists to serve all citizens. However, in September 1955, as Lawrence painted this panel, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published this executive note in the New York Times that documented the ceremonial hearing in which citizens voiced constitutional violations as the country celebrated the 168th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Excerpt from the Constitutional Convention, Constitution of the United States, General Records of the United States Government, 1778-2006, National Archives Catalog, National Archives

Panel 15, 1955, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Francis H. Burr Memorial Fund, Anonymous Fund in memory of Henry Berg, and Alpheus Hyatt Fund, 1995.23. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Harvard Art Museums

Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention, 1856, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Junius Brutus Stearns’s painting represents the civilian George Washington’s role as president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He is seen urging passage of a new federal constitution, a draft of which he holds. For his Struggle painting, Lawrence evoked the collective political struggle among 13 men—symbolizing the number of states they represented during four months of intense work on the document.

Panel 16, 1956, painting location and image unknown

Letter from George Washington to Henry Knox, December 26, 1786, The Gilder Lehrman Collection, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York

Lawrence excerpted the title caption for this now-missing panel from a letter that retired General George Washington wrote to General Henry Knox on December 26, 1786. Washington conveys his concerns about the Massachusetts farmers protesting tax collections intended to repay the new nation’s war debt. In 1787, these protests sparked Shay’s Rebellion in Springfield, Massachusetts.

I do assure you, that even at this moment, when I reflect on the present posture of our affairs, it seems to me to be like the vision of a dream. My mind does not know how to realize it, as a thing in actual existence, so strange—so wonderful does it appear to me! In this, as in most other matter[s], we are too slow. When this spirit first dawned, probably it migh[t] easily have been checked; but it is scarcely within the reach of human ken, at this moment, to say when—where—or how it will end. There are combustibles in every State, which a spark may set fire to.

Excerpt from Letter from George Washington to Henry Knox, December 26, 1786, The Gilder Lehrman Collection, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York

Panel 16, 1956, painting location and image unknown

Artist in the United States, reproduction of Portrait of Prince Hall, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon

In 1787, black American veteran and founder of the first African Lodge of Freemasons Prince Hall offered to raise an all-black militia to put down the farmer rebellion of Daniel Shays. Massachusetts Governor James Bowdoin refused Hall’s offer. Just a few months later, Hall sent a proposal of a very different kind to the legislature: since the new nation refused to recognize their equality, black Bostonians requested financial support for voluntary repatriation to Africa.

Panel 17, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Alexander Hamilton, “Statement on Impending Duel with Aaron Burr” in Hamilton's Letter Prior to Duel, and Last Will & Testament, New-York Evening Post, July 16, 1804

Statesman Alexander Hamilton wrote this statement before his fatal duel with Vice President Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804. Lawrence emphasized the senseless loss of this founding father by selecting the words that conveyed Hamilton’s intent and regret.

1 My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of Duelling, and it would even give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws.
2 My wife and Children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of the utmost importance to them, in various views.
3 I feel a sense of obligation towards my creditors; who in case of accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some degree sufferers. I did not think my self at liberty, as a man of probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard.
4 I am conscious of no ill-will to Col Burr, distinct from political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and upright motives.
Lastly, I shall hazard much, and can possibly gain nothing by the issue of the interview.
But it was, as I conceive, impossible for me to avoid it. There were intrinsick difficulties in the thing, and artificial embarrassments, from the manner of proceeding on the part of Col Burr.

Excerpt from Alexander Hamilton, “Statement on Impending Duel with Aaron Burr” in Hamilton’s Letter Prior to Duel, and Last Will & Testament, New-York Evening Post, July 16, 1804

Panel 17, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

The Burr-Hamilton Duel, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Company, 1953. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

This engraving of the Burr-Hamilton duel was reproduced in one of Lawrence’s sources, a popular pictorial history book of the time. While this illustration depicts the event as highly ritualized with all the trappings of class and privilege, Lawrence paints an alternative perspective: the bloody aftermath of the tragic contest.

Panel 18, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert/PEM

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1803, The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

This letter from President Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark inspired Lawrence to focus on Sacajawea, the Lemhi Shoshone translator who helped them navigate severe terrain and complicated encounters during their journey through the newly U.S.-seized territory west of the Mississippi River. The region was homeland to millions of Indigenous people and Jefferson’s letter further instructed Lewis and Clark to pack special supplies as gifts for those they met.

Some account too of the path of the Canadian traders from the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Ouisconsing to where it strikes the Missouri, & of the soil and rivers in its course, is desirable. In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly & conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit; allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey, satisfy them of it's innocence, make them acquainted with the position, extent character, peaceable & commercial dispositions of the US. of our wish to be neighborly, friendly, & useful to them, & of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, and the articles of most desireable interchange for them & us.

Excerpt from Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1803, The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Panel 18, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Bob Packert/PEM

William Henry Jackson, Historic Homecoming, 1940, engraving illustrated in Howard Driggs, Westward America, American Pioneer Trails Association, 1942, New York

This illustration was published in one of Lawrence’s sources. The caption declares “Historic Homecoming,” which describes the reunion between Sacajawea and the Lemhi Shoshone people. However, the scene is romanticized as a landscape painting, emphasizing America’s westward expansion into Native-occupied land as an idealistic subject.

Panel 19, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Stephen Petegorsky

James Madison, “President James Madison’s war message, June 1, 1812,” June 1, 1812, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration

President James Madison made this declaration before Congress to emphasize the injustice of Great Britain’s impressment of American sailors. Their forced capture and service in the Royal Navy was a major factor in the War of 1812, the second war between the United States and Britain. Lawrence excerpted Madison’s justifiable pretext for war as this panels title caption.

In place of such a trial, these rights are subjected to the will of every petty commander. The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone, that under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American Citizens, under the safeguard of public law, and of their national flag, have been torn from their country, and from every thing dear to them; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation; and exposed, under the siverities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren.

Excerpt from James Madison, “President James Madison’s war message, June 1, 1812,” U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration

Panel 20, 1956. Painting location and image unknown

Excerpt from Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1953)

While there is no image of this missing panel, the subject of its title references this page in one of Lawrence’s sources. Spindles as a title frames America’s massive increase in slave labor between 1790 and 1860 as the solution to economic problems and the beginning of Southern plantations. This text omits the fact that this rising national economy was at the cost of the people enslaved.

Panel 20, 1956. Painting location and image unknown

Eli Whitney, Cotton Gin, 1794, Records of the Patent and Trademark Office, National Archives and Records Administration

Spindles are straight wooden spikes used to spin and twist fibers. In this image of a cotton gin, the engineered rows of interchangeable points around the wooden cylinder are the spindles. These parts removed the cotton’s seeds from its fiber by pulling it through a comb-like grid.

Panel 21, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Excerpt from Edward Eggleston and Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1878)

In 1813, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh delivered this speech to British General Henry A. Proctor shortly before the Battle of the Thames in Canada. He implores the British to stay and fight for the lost Native land they had pledged to help reclaim. Lawrence conflated this speech with Tecumseh’s loss at Tippecanoe in 1811, which precipitated the steady decline of his confederation but not his resolve to continue to fight the Americans for his lands.

You always told us you would never draw your foot off British ground; but now, father, we see that you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doing so without seeing the enemy. We must compare our father’s conduct to a fat dog that carries its tail on its back, but when affrighted it drops it between its legs and runs off. Father, listen! The Americans have yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure that they have done so by water; we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy, should they make their appearance.

Panel 21, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Battle of Tippecanoe, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Company, 1953. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

This engraving of a painting by Alonzo Chappel is in the pages of Lawrence’s 1953 source The Story of America in Pictures illustrating the Battle of Tippecanoe. It depicts a wide view of Tecumseh’s and American forces entrenched in battle while Lawrence’s imagery positions the viewer closer to the fight in which no one has yet fallen.

Panel 22, 1956, Collection of Robert Gober and Donald Moffett. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Hunter and Trappers, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Co, 1953. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

This illustration appears in one of Lawrence’s source books. A group of trappers, and fur traders appear gathered around a fire. The central figure points to the hanging elk, a detail that inspired Lawrence’s own composition for his painting.

Panel 23, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Excerpt from Henry Clay, ed. Calvin Colton, The Speeches of Henry Clay (New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1857)

On January 8, 1813, Senator Henry Clay delivered this speech to Congress. Clay sought to rally congressional members to increase support for the war with Britain in order to protect Americans on the front lines from impressment. Lawrence selects some of the last lines of Clay’s persuasive oration to emphasize the importance of committing to a common struggle to defend all Americans.

We are told that england is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half way. Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her, and, if we do not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with success; but if we fail, let us fail like men, lash ourselves to our gallant tars, and expire together in one common struggle, fighting for FREE TRADE AND SEAMEN’S RIGHTS.

Panel 23, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Martyl Schweig Langsdorf, Courageous Act of Cyrus Tiffany in Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, 1943, Recorder of Deeds Building, Washington DC

This 1943 mural of black sailor Cyrus Tiffany and Commander Oliver Hazard Perry by Martyl Schweig Langsdorf visualizes the contributions of black people in America’s early wars as public art. Tiffany served as a sailor in the Battle of Lake Erie and he was in charge of Perry’s multiracial crew. In his painting, Lawrence diverged from the convention of picturing Tiffany heroically shielding Perry as they transferred vessels in the midst of battle.

Panel 24, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

The Burning of Washington, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Company, 1953. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

This picture from one of Lawrence’s source books illustrates the burning of Washington, DC, in 1814. British soldiers advance in formation through the burning city where smoke billows out of the Congressional Library and Capitol buildings and blackens the sky. In the lower left corner, soldiers march over a slain horse, raising British flags as they move forward. In Lawrence’s painting of the aftermath, there are no people, only a wounded bird.

Panel 25, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Letter from Andrew Jackson to Robert Hays, February 17, 1815, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775-1874, Manuscript/Mixed Material, Library of Congress

After winning the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson wrote of the skill and valor of his ad hoc army. Jackson’s diverse militia held off the British approach, but their triumph was largely in vain. Just weeks prior, the United States and the United Kingdom had signed the Treaty of Ghent to end the war and the news had not yet reached America.

In my encampment, every thing was ready for action—when, early on the morning of the 8th, the enemy, after throwing a heavy shower of bombs and Congreve rockets, advanced their columns on my right and left, to storm my intrenchments. I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness, and deliberation, with which my whole line received their approach—more could not have been expected from veterans, inured to war.

Excerpt from Letter from Andrew Jackson to Robert Hays, February 17, 1815, Andrew Jackson Papers, 1775-1874, Manuscript/Mixed Material, Library of Congress

Panel 25, 1956, Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

Philibert-Louis Debucourt, after Jean Hyacinthe Laclotte, Defeat of the British army ... Défaite de l'armée Anglaise, 1815. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC

This illustration in one of Lawrence’s source books depicts the Battle of New Orleans. In the right foreground, British troops advance along the Mississippi River into American trenches, which were filled with bayonets.

Panel 26, 1956, Courtesy of Bill and Holly Marklyn. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Treaty of Ghent, 1814, International Treaties and Related Records, 1778-1974, General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11, National Archives

The United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium on December 24, 1814, ending the War of 1812. The Treaty’s provisions dictated that prisoners of war would be exchanged. But captured enslaved people would remain enslaved or were purchased by the British.

ARTICLE THE FIRST.
There shall be a firm and universal Peace between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their respective Countries, Territories, Cities, Towns, and People of every degree without exception of places or persons. All hostilities both by sea and land shall cease as soon as this Treaty shall have been ratified by both parties as hereinafter mentioned.

Excerpt from the Treaty of Ghent, 1814, International Treaties and Related Records, 1778-1974, General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11, National Archives

Panel 26, 1956, Courtesy of Bill and Holly Marklyn. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Silene virginica, or fire pink, Garland Mountain Horse and Hiking Trails, Cherokee County, Georgia. Photo by Philip Bouchard, 2019

Stellaria pubera, or star chickweed, Pickett's Mill State Historic Site, Paulding County, Georgia. Photo by Philip Bouchard, 2016

Lithospermum tuberosum, or southern stoneseed. Photo by Walter Siegmund, 2011

While General Andrew Jackson’s Battle of New Orleans victory culminated years of warring, Lawrence symbolized the American cessation as feeble yet persistent flowers sprouting from the cracked earth. The nation was starting over again. The three flora species depicted are native to the American South.

Panel 27, 1956, private collection.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Thomas Blount, “Apprehended Insurrection of the Blacks,” New-York Evening Post, April 30, 1810

Lawrence found the reference to this letter by Captain James, an enslaved man in Georgia, in Herbert Aptheker’s book American Negro Slave Revolts (1936). The letter was part of an exchange outlining logistics for a revolt planned for midnight on April 22, 1810, to liberate enslaved populations between Halifax County, North Carolina, and Greene County, Georgia. While discovery of the missive stopped the plan, it was published in the New-York Evening Post a week later.

Dear Sir — I received your letter to the fourteenth of June, 1809 with great freedom and joy to hear and understand what great proceedance you have made, and the resolution you have in pro-ceeding on in business as we have undertook, and hope you will still continue in the same mind. We have spread the sense nearly over the continent in our part of the country, and have the day when we are to fall to work, and you must be sure not to fail on that day, and that is the 22d. April, to begin about midnight, and do the work at home first, and then take the armes of them you slay first, and that will strengthen us more in armes — for freedom we want and will have, for we have served this cruel land long enuff, & be as secret convaing your nuse as possabel, and be sure to send it by some cearfull hand, and if it happens to be discovered, fail not in the day, for we are full abel to conquer by any means. — Sir, I am your Captain James, living in the state of Jorgy, in Green county — so no more at present, but remaining your sincer friend and captain until death

Excerpt from Thomas Blount, “Apprehended Insurrection of the Blacks,” New-York Evening Post, April 30, 1810

Panel 27, 1956, private collection.
© The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Seattle Art Museum

Discovery of Nat Turner, about 1831, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library

Nat Turner was an enslaved field hand and a widely respected minister who used his talents as a speaker to organize and mobilize people. He led an uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Although unsuccessful, the event served as a profound what if story for Lawrence’s image in Panel 27 of violent suppression.

Panel 28, 1956, painting location unknown. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Lucia | Marquand

Richard B. Morris, ed., Encyclopedia of American History, Harper & Brothers, 1953

Published in one of Lawrence’s sources, this graph lists the number of immigrants arriving in America by country. Lawrence used a different total number from the data listed here for the painting’s title caption. According to this table, the number of immigrants who came to the U.S. between 1820 to 1840 would have been much higher.

Panel 28, 1956, painting location unknown. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Lucia | Marquand

The Great Tide of Immigration: Embarkation for New York, engraving illustrated in Alan C. Collins, The Story of America in Pictures, Doubleday & Company, 1953. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM

This image in one of Lawrence’s sources depicts a romantic representation of 19th-century immigration to America. Masses of people hold belongings and look after each other as they frantically board tall ships. The man in the center of the picture looks back and gives a wave.

Panel 29, 1956, painting location unknown. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of Lucia | Marquand

View on the Erie Canal, 1829. Courtesy of The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library

This image is from one of Lawrence’s source books and depict’s the Erie Canal after it was built. Lawrence excerpted the panel’s title caption from this page, but painted a very different image. This illustration does not focus on the intensely collaborative efforts required of a diverse workforce to trench the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes region.

Panel 30, 1956, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, gift of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Family in memory of Dr. Gabrielle H. Reem, 2013.96. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Stanford University

Excerpt from Morris Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey in America from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois (London: Severn and Company, 1818)

English Quaker and abolitionist Morris Birbeck published a pamphlet in 1817 that contained this passage describing his westward trek across early America. Birbeck dreamed of a utopian community that would improve the lives of the downtrodden and expand the boundaries of freedom to all people.

We have now fairly turned our backs on the old world, and find ourselves in the very stream of emigration. Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving westward. We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards Ohio, of family groups behind and before us, some with a view to a particular spot; close to a brother, perhaps, or a friend who has gone before and reported well of the country. Many, like ourselves, when they arrive in the wilderness, will find no lodge prepared for them.

Panel 30, 1956, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, gift of Dr. Herbert Kayden and Family in memory of Dr. Gabrielle H. Reem, 2013.96. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Stanford University

Painting by W.C. Grauer illustrated in Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard, A Basic History of the United States, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1944

This picture is from one of Lawrence’s source books. Two figures on horseback lead a covered wagon caravan while Native people are represented in the bottom right corner by figures who either face or turn their backs to the brigade. Unlike Lawrence’s painting, which does not depict people, this picture signifies the weight of sacrifice, deprivation, isolation, and hardship endured by those pushing west.