A Soldier's Homecoming

Cast Bronze, 2007
18 " X 18" X 36"

When he was sent home from the War, he had no idea of what direction he would be going. He knew nothing about the North, and though they helped free him, many still hated the African man. He had seen many Black Yankee soldiers treated so badly by their so-called Northern liberators, that they may as well have returned to the South where the hatred was just a little more visible. He had fought well in battle, and helped bury many a white soldier. Despite his low pay and faulty weaponry, he was still able to perform the tasks of an able warrior.

He chose to return to the small disheveled southern city the where he had been a slave, grew up, escaped and then served as a Union soldier. As he walked down the war-torn streets and among the shell-riddled buildings, people wandered about as if in a daze. As he limped proudly through one of the main passageways, whites moved to one side, and blacks moved to the other, as if obeying some Jim Crow signal. The crowd appeared somewhat gaunt and unfed, but still mustered reaction to his presence. Blacks whooped and cheered, and whites stared in disbelief at the fact that before them walked the most dangerous being the world has ever known--a former black slave man, armed, and well-trained to kill.