Preview
Creation Date
1940
Description
. . . The boy who has found a red ear kisses the girl who brings the cider. ("Murals in the Rhinebeck Post Office") Notice Dows's inclusion of a black slave laborer in lower right corner. Slavery officially persisted in New York State until 1799. After 1799, any child born in New York State to a slave woman would be deemed free according to the 1799 Gradual Emancipation Bill, but would be required to serve his/her mother's master as an indentured servant until the age of 21, pending general emancipation in 1827. Children born to slave mothers on or before July 3rd, 1827 could legally be held as indentured servants until 1848. Mural commissioned for Rhinebeck, NY post office by WPA Section of Fine Arts Art in Public Buildings Program, photographed by C.B. Ross and Edward Campeau.