年代分期
內戰時期 Civil War Era (1861–1865)
「『分裂之家無可持存』。我相信這個政府無法忍受一半奴役一半自由的狀態。」
— 亞伯拉罕林肯，參議員候選人，一八五八年
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free.”
— Senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln, 1858
關於聯邦政府在州權、貿易、特別是奴隸制等議題的衝突，造成南北方各州劍拔弩張的緊張關係。一八六０年林肯當選美國總統後，南部十一州退出聯邦自組新政府。這些事件引發了美國內戰，一場美國歷史上最殘忍、血腥的鬥爭，最後導致南方戰敗，超過五十萬美國人在終結奴役的戰場上犧牲。
Conflict over the states, trade, and especially slavery had increased tension between Northern and Southern states. After Lincoln was elected president in 1860, eleven Southern states withdrew from the Union and set up an independent government. These events led to the outbreak of the Civil War—a brutal, bloody battle that left the South defeated and ended slavery at the cost of more than half a million lives.
[相關展品]
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9a. 新田中的老兵（THE VETERAN IN A NEW FIELD）by WINSLOW HOMER, 1865
油彩‧畫布，61.3 x 96.8公分。© 大都會博物館。
Oil on canvas; 24 1/8 x 38 1/8 in. (61.3 x 96.8 cm). © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.美國內戰很多戰爭就發生在麥田裡。這裡有「農場」與「戰場」重疊的對比象徵及情感張力。
The veteran appears to have set aside his Army training along with what remained of his military uniform to harvest a field that once again yields the gift of golden wheat, which in Christianity is a symbol of salvation. Even in the aftermath of the worst disasters, the artist seems to say, life has the capacity to restore itself.
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9b. 美國總統亞伯罕林肯（ABRAHAM LINCOLN）by ALEX GARDNER, 1865
攝於1865年4月10日，照片。印刷與照片部門，國會圖書館，華盛頓特區。
Photographic print. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.詩人惠特曼形容林肯總是懷著「隱隱的憂傷」。
What draws/holds our attention is Lincoln ’s expression, “a deep latent sadness” in Walt Whitman’s words.
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10a. 羅伯特古德蕭將軍與第五十四兵團紀念雕像（ROBERT SHAW MEMORIAL）by SAINT-GAUDENS, 1884
燈塔街與公園街，波士頓，麻州，西元1884年~1897年。銅，3.35 x 4.27公尺。照片由凱洛海史密斯提供。
Beacon and Park Streets, Boston, MA, 1884–1897. Bronze, 11 x 14 ft. (3.35 x 4.27 m.). Photograph courtesy of Carol M. Highsmith.波士頓公眾花園的蕭上校紀念碑描述了一個英勇、盪氣迴腸的故事 - 南北戰爭期間，北軍白人上校徵召第一支黑人部隊「五四梯隊」，進行一場明知不可而為之的光榮戰役。
The Shaw Memorial depicts a resonant, courageous act of the Civil War, in which the first regiment of African American soldiers recruited for the Union Army fought a doomed battle on a South Carolina fortress.
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10b. 十九與二十世紀被褥（QUILTS: 19-20TH CENTURIES）by various artists
布料稀缺的時代，拼布成為一種具有美學與社會面向的工藝品。
A thrifty way to make use of leftover fabric, at a time when fabric could be scarce and expensive, quilts soon took on aesthetic and social dimensions in the hands of their makers in every region of America. Ingenuity, abstract invention, and the traces of changing American technology are revealed in the quilts handed down through families and museums.
