identity theft: johnson
After legalized slavery ended, many freed slaves took last names that were thought to be prestigious such as the names of former U.S. Presidents. Ironically, many of the names taken were of slave owning Presidents. Andrew Johnson was Vice President at the time of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. After Lincoln's assassination Johnson became President. January 16, 1865, during the Civil War (1861-65), Union general William T. Sherman issued his Special Field Order No. 15, which confiscated as Union property a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John's River in Florida, including Georgia's and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast. The order redistributed the roughly 400,000 acres of land to newly freed black families in forty-acre segments. When Andrew Johnson became President he rescinded Sherman's Field Order No. 15.
Reference: Myers, Barton. "Sherman's Field Order No. 15." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 08 June 2017. Web. 04 December 2018.
Reference: Myers, Barton. "Sherman's Field Order No. 15." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 08 June 2017. Web. 04 December 2018.
Assemblage: oak wood, wire, deconstructed aṣọ òkè Ghanaian hand woven cotton fugu (smock), feather, poinciana pods, ebony figurine, acrylic medium, galvanized steel hardware cloth, iron chain, steel sign
H 72" x W 48" x D 3"
(2022)
H 72" x W 48" x D 3"
(2022)