Chain Gang: Systematic Slavery in Art

William Johnson, Chain Gang

William Johnson's Chain Gang was painted in an abstract style that was becoming more widespread in the inter-war period, but more importantly it portrays a certain attitude towards life in the country. Johnson was a South Carolina native who spent most of the 20’s in Harlem – he would move to Paris in 1926. As a native South Carolinian, Johnson would have often witnessed a scene like that depicted in Chain Gang; African Americans being forced to labor in lieu of, and more often along side, prison time. The style of the painting helps to add to the sense of over-encumbered weight that seems to affect the subjects. The tools are large and heavy looking, even in the bright colors, and the prisoners have difficulty using them. The man with the shovel is especially altered and bent out of shape by his contact with the tool – his back is bent horribly over his work and his face looks dejected, as if he knows he cannot get out of the task. This truth is reflected by the shackles, which inhibit how much the prisoners can move their feet. So while their upper bodies give the impression of labored movement, their legs, the means of possible escape, are frozen up.

Johnson painted these motifs in purposely of course – the shackles, work, and the physical distortion represent the effects of labor exploitation of African American prisoners. The bodies bent out of proportion are the bodies of laborers bent up by the constant stress of forced manual labor. The tools are the heavy burden of oppression on these same prisoners that often meant long sentences of labor for trivial offenses. And the shackles, most importantly, show that slavery in America was not gone in Johnson’s day: whites had simply altered the venue and justification while continuing the exploitation.