Compromise Of 1850 Artist Statement- Eve O'Toole- Indigo's Team

Zoë’s Artist Statement For The Compromise Of 1850

April 19th 2011

       The compromise of 1850 was developed by Henry Clay as a way to try to keep both free and slave states balanced and happy. The compromise involved four pieces. The first of these parts was the organization of the New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah territories. They set up the framework for these areas of land and many people moved to them. However, they did not decide which of these territories would become slave holding and which would be free, the people that moved there would choose that later. After the gold rush many people where left living in California, so many that they wanted it to become a state. With the compromise they where allowed to do so. In Washington D.C., the issue of slavery was very complicated. After much debate they added the abolishment of the slave trade in this area to the deal. Even though slaves where still allowed their children would be free. The last addition to the settlement was the fugitive slave act. This bill stated that all runaway slaves would would not have the right to a hearing, and all people assisting these fugitives would be harshly punished. Many abolitionists where very enraged by this proposal, but these was the terms that that the trade stated. This agreement was important to the civil war because it tried to hold the country together. In the end, the compromise of 1850 worked well to suit both the north and south for a temporality amount of time. However the balance did not last long.
      As a way to capture this major event in history I collaged a quilt square with a variety of images. These pictures included slaves, Henry Clay, the document itself and maps of the territories. I ripped up the photos and drawings then glued them down onto the page in a random way. This represented some of the chaos and confusion that people felt at this time as the nation began to split in two. I also wrote words around the square that helped the observer have a clear picture of what the compromise and life at that time was like. I hope you learned something about pre-civil war history from my artwork. Our world could be very different today it these events did not happen.