MET Museum

Going to the exhibition of “Civil War”, in the MET, was new experience for me. First, I would like to mention that I had never been to the MET before, so being there for the first time was exciting already. The exhibition itself was somewhat different. The lights were much dimmed throughout the whole exhibition so it made it the feeling of it very “down”. The artifacts were somewhat depressing as well. The artifacts of the pictures of the Union and Confederate were my favorite, especially when the pictures were in gold covered and brass metal locks. To me, it was very nice to see because it was real people that we can look at pictures now, who fought and made history. A few artifacts though were not as pleasing. One artifact in particular was a picture that was attributed to McPherson and Oliver. The picture was called Gordon, a runaway Mississippi slave or “The Scourged Black Man”. This picture was taken in either March –April of 1863. It was a picture of a runaway slave named Gordon, who had whipping, scars on his back from the whips his owner would give him. His facial expression was very interesting as well. Even though he did seem upset, he had a look on his face like he didn’t care anymore. He was posing for the camera, his back towards the camera, but his head turned so you can see it. Maybe the look on his face wasn’t that he didn’t care, but maybe it was face of loss of hope. His “look” represented what it was like to be a slave: Hopelessness. This picture not only wasn’t pleasant to look at, but it made me feel kind of upset and wondered how many more slaves looked like this back when slavery was allowed. And also, it was so regular for the white owners to see slaves with scars and beatings on their bodies, how could they have walked around so nonchalant and look at them like that, and think it was fine. Overall, my trip experience was new and it was interesting to learn about a lot of artifacts that made history in our country.