The bone player-Madeline Aldrich

The Bone Player By:William Sidney Mount

Madeline Aldrich

This artifact is an oil painting of a male slave in the 1850s. He is a very well dressed, happy, african American man. He is also a slave, you would probably never know! In his hands show him playing the bones. They're carved animal bones used to hit against each other constantly to make a beat. This shows that not all slaves were treated bad. This man had a talent and his slave owner gave him the privilege to preform and travel. This is interesting because I didn't knew slave owners let slaves do that. Maybe slaves could be happy doing the things they loved. I was surprised to see a slave smiling because being a slave seems like the most miserable thing to be. Being a slave could be miserable because they are always ordered around to do whatever their owner wants them to do. I believe that the wealthy people were lazy because now a days we don't have slaves but are very productive. Slave owners did not necessarily need to have slaves to be successful by doing the work they could easily do.