VISUAL ACTIVITYThe Lord Is My Shepherd, 1863 Maine-born Eastman Johnson (1824–1906) did this painting only months after the Emancipation Proclamation. Its title comes from Psalm 23, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” The painting captures a humble black man quietly reading his Bible and reminds us of one of the reasons freedmen struggled so hard for literacy.READING THE IMAGE: What is the artist saying about ex-slaves’ capacity to live as free people?CONNECTIONS: Why did southern whites in the Reconstruction era consider literacy for former slaves less a religious impulse than a dangerous political act?

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./Art Resource, NY.