The House that Jeff Built 1863

David Claypoole Johnston created this lithograph, "The House that Jeff Built," as a potent piece of political commentary. Johnston was working in a period rife with intense debates over slavery in the United States. The print is structured as a satirical take on the nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built", critiquing Jefferson Davis, then president of the Confederacy, and the economic foundations of the South. Johnston weaves together images of enslaved people picking cotton, being sold, and being whipped, thus exposing the brutal realities upon which the Southern economy was built. In doing so, he challenges the romanticized vision of the South often portrayed at the time. The stark contrast between the images of enslaved people and the refined portrait of Jefferson Davis forces viewers to confront the human cost of slavery. The emotional weight of this work lies in its unflinching portrayal of injustice and its call for moral reckoning. Johnston does not shy away from implicating all aspects of society. He shows how they were complicit in perpetuating a system that valued profit over human dignity.