Declaration of Independence and Freedom
Artist
Faith Ringgold
(American, 1930 - 2024)
Date2009
MediumSilkscreen
DimensionsSheet Dimension: 15 × 22 in. (38.1 × 55.9 cm)
ClassificationsAcrylic Painting
Credit LinePaul W. Zimmerman Purchase Fund
Object number2021.5
DescriptionEdition 23 of 35"All Men Are Created Equal"
"And Women?"
"Absolute Tyranny"
"Taxes On Us Without Our Consent"
"We Have Appealed to Their Native Justic and Magnamity"
"As Free and Independent States"
In Faith Ringgold’s series The Declaration of Freedom and Independence, each work juxtaposes two contrasting images under an iconic national motto. The first image, All Men Are Created Equal, depicts King George III of England towering over his subjects on the left, while on the right, a ship sails for America, tightly packed with African slaves. The stark contrast between these images exposes the hypocrisy of the title phrase: colonial Americans who sought freedom from the tyranny of monarchy did not extend that freedom to Africans. A subsequent image, And Women?, juxtaposes portraits of two leading activists for women’s rights: on the right, an image of Sojourner Truth is overwritten with the text of her speech "Ain't I a Woman?” which advocated for voting rights and gender equality. On the left, an image of Abigail Adams is overwritten with the text of a letter to her husband John Adams, imploring him to consider the rights of women while drafting the Declaration of Independence.
To illustrate this series about the Declaration of Independence’s claims that all men are created equal, Ringgold describes, “I had to create a truth I could believe in,”—one that revealed both the hypocrisy and contractions of our nation’s founding principles. “My intention in these illustrations is to tell the story of the forefathers declaration of independence from the British, along with the… struggle for freedom and equality that one day we hope will become an undeniable reality.”
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