Color of Money
Depictions of Slavery in Confederate and Southern
States Currency
Original Acrylic on Canvas Paintings by
John W. Jones
March 8 - 31, 2004
Opening Reception - March 12, 2004 - 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Artist John W. Jones' Use of Images of Slavery He
Discovered On Confederate Money Creates Stirring Depictions That Attracts
Thousands of All Colors
60 Vignettes Brought to Stunning Life in "Color of Money"
Exhibit
Joins History, Art, and Commerce As Debates On Slavery Continue
Did you know there were images of enslaved people on
Confederate money in the 1800s? Very few people are! The YMI is bringing
this buried piece of history to the forefront.
Artist John W Jones accidental discovery in 1996 of
images of slavery engraved on Confederate and Southern States currencies
may well change the way people view slavery in a powerful way and
present a superb revelation in art of the many and diverse contributions
of African Americans to the economy of the South and the United States
during slavery.
Today, Mr. Jones has become famous for bringing to the
nation's attention the fact that the Confederacy promoted the moneymaking
virtues of slavery by engraving on its currency images of slaves at
work. A collection of his paintings will be on display at YMI Cultural
Center in Asheville, North Carolina from March 8 through March 31,
2004. An opening reception will be held in the YMI galleries on Friday,
March 12th from 5:30 - 7:30 PM.
Jones discovery occurred in 1996, when a customer gave
him a $10 bill issued by the Farmers & Exchange Bank of Charleston
in 1853 to enlarge at a Blueprint Company where he was employed. After
enlarging the bill, a shocked Jones found images of slaves starring
at him. 54-year-old Jones became intrigued and excited. He started
researching and documenting the use of slaves on Confederate and Southern
states money. "I discovered that like me, most people never knew
there were African Americans on any money, let alone Confederate money,"
Jones said. "This is a part of our history that no one knows
anything about. I wanted to let the public know about it."
He
found similar bills at flea markets, on eBay, and at shops specializing
in old currencies. He eventually collected over 128 currencies. Jones
has painted 93 of the slavery scenes. The collection of paintings
and the framed confederate currencies are now on a four-year traveling
exhibition that started in Charleston, South Carolina in 2001. The
exhibition has been shown in museums at Oakland, California; Milwaukee,
Wisconsin; Columbia, South Carolina; Rome, New York; The Civil War
Center at Louisiana State University, and the Martin Luther King Jr.
National Historic Site, Atlanta, Georgia.
The popular exhibition has broken museum attendance
records and has been critiqued and described in articles in several
publications, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and
Time magazine. Jones' paintings also have been featured on CNN, PBS
and National Public Radio.
A companion book to the exhibition called "The
Color of Money" with 244 color illustrations showing the paintings
and the currencies, and a Teachers Guide have been published to accompany
the exhibition. Schools and Universities have adopted "The Color
of Money" book for use as a curriculum resource. According to
Brenda Bines, "I assigned 'The Color of Money' book to my class
to research its implications, and the kids were so excited to do additional
research and write the paper." The book provides a unique reference
work for historians, museum professionals, students and general readers
as well as paper money collectors. It serves as a valuable resource
for symposiums, conferences, lectures and classroom or community-based
educational projects.
In the book, slaves are shown involved in all aspects
of the South's lower economic structure. Engravings of slaves were
everywhere: clearing farmlands, planting cotton, hoeing the fields,
picking cotton, baling cotton, carrying the cotton, bringing cotton
bales to the market, to the steamboat and to the train. Since states
could charter banks, there were bank notes showing slaves cooking
for their white masters in South Carolina, picking sugar cane in Tennessee
and Alabama, harvesting turpentine in Georgia, carrying tobacco in
Texas, feeding a horse in Virginia, harvesting corn in Missouri, working
in a factory in North Carolina, and even working on a wheat farm for
George Washington.
In "Slave Profits" a $5 bill from the Georgia
Savings Bank in Macon depicts Moneta, the Roman goddess of money.
She holds a branch of cotton, with four large bolls. Gold coins spill
from sacks around her. Behind her left shoulder, a train rumbles by.
To the right, 15 slaves pick cotton. On the currency, Moneta is white.
But in his painting, Jones has painted Moneta as a woman of mixed
race (a mulatto), with medium brown skin and thick blond hair. To
Jones, it's all connected: slavery, cotton, commerce, and sexual exploitation
of black women. "I think that sums it up - it was all about money,"
Jones said. "They work and she gets the money."
The slaves depicted on the currencies were healthy,
well-treated and often shown with smiling faces, because the bills
were designed as a portable propaganda tool to reinforce Southern
convictions about the legitimacy of slavery and hopefully convince
the Northerners, that the slaves were treated humanely.
The paintings have dramatically changed life for Jones,
who couldn't afford to go college and ended up in the Army. After
he left the army, he worked as a freelance artist and illustrator
for more than 20 years. His former clients include Time Life Books,
IBM, Westinghouse, Rubbermaid, NASA, Gadded Space and Flight Center,
and the U.S. Postal Service. Currently he lectures at corporations,
universities, schools, libraries, churches and conferences throughout
the country. He works as a full time artist at his studios in Columbia,
South Carolina.
According to Mr. Jones, "My experience researching
this project has shown me that the most beautiful American Dream experience
is the history of African Americans from slavery to present day. Many
African Americans are ashamed of our slavery history, and many whites
feel guilty about American slave history. My hope is that the exhibition
Confederate Currency: The Color of Money will inspire discussions
on the legacy of slavery and somehow help to remove the shame African
Americans feel and remove the guilt whites feel when slavery is discussed.
The YMI Cultural Center will host a series of gallery
talks to discuss the issues described by Mr. Jones above. A schedule
will be available beginning next week and will be led by community
leaders and educators. The exhibit's opening reception will be Friday,
March 12th at 5:30 PM. We are proud and excited to bring this caliber
of exhibit to the heart of downtown Asheville and "The Block",
Asheville's African American historic district.
The YMI Cultural Center is supported by the Adelaide
Key Foundation; Asheville Area Arts Council United Arts Campaign;
City of Asheville Parks & Recreation Department.; Biltmore Estate;
Buncombe County; First Citizens Bank; Friends of the YMI; Grove Park
Inn Resort & Spa; North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded
by the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts;
Progress Energy; and Wachovia Bank.
