With the American flag having a star to represent each individual state, it clearly expresses the USA's sheer power, dominance and size. For many immigrants who came to the United States by ship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Statue of Liberty became their first landmark they saw as they approached their new home, signifying freedom and mass opportunity leading it to become one of the greatest American icons.
This sketch of A Slave Pen at New Orleans made in 1861 shows America’s harsh past. Slave labour was in demand in the North (before
1800) and in southern cities as servants. Slaves were non-white and typically
worked at agriculture on plantations or large farms, where cash
crops were made using labour-intensive cultivation, usually sugar,
cotton, tobacco and rice. By 1860 most slaves were held in the South of
the United States. The sketch shows the reality of
America during this time, as the land of freedom and opportunity
clearly displays acts of racism, inequality and lack of freedom.
Slave labour was a significant contributor to the successful development
of the United States which still remains as a haunting fact to the US in contemporary America.
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