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A present from the great house" - How did freedmen celebrate Christmas in Virginia during Reconstruction?
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Bernardito is
in
Virginia
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In December 1871, Harper's Weekly published this illustration of an African-American family receiving a visit from the young daughter of the owner of the Great House (i.e. plantation house) bearing gifts for Christmas.
Now, it's not difficult to assume that this is a highly romanticized and idealistic illustration, but would something similar to this actually have happened? Would sharecroppers for example have received any sort of attention during Christmas from the landowners, as depicted in the Harper's Weekly illustration? How would Christmas have been celebrated by a rural African-American family during the 1870s?
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- 8 years ago
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