John Brown figure

Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom, artist

John Brown figure, circa 1860

Where object was made: Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom

Material/technique: glaze; earthenware

Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2012.0079

Not on display

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Brosseau Center for Learning: The Object Feels

This ceramic figurine features John Brown standing between two small Black children in white dresses. Ever since his execution in 1859, John Brown has commonly been considered one of the greatest martyrs in the American abolitionist movement. This English sculpture made soon after his death belongs to a tradition of portraying Brown as a champion and friend of African Americans. The tall, pale, red-cheeked figure of Brown wearing an all-white outfit contrasts greatly with the two short, dark-skinned girls gazing up at him as his hands rest on them protectively.

Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2016 KU Common Book

“I was obsessed with the Civil War because six hundred thousand people had died in it. And yet it had been glossed over in my education, and in popular culture, representations of the war and its reasons seemed obscured.” ("Between the World and Me," p. 99)