Completed in Florence, 1866

Powers made a final version of The Greek Slave at the end of the Civil War. The figure conforms to the earlier versions in many ways, but the linked chains have been replaced with a set of straight-bar manacles, copied in marble from the iron set attached to the plaster model. This decisive change makes explicit Powers’s view of slavery and turns the statue into an unambiguous abolitionist emblem.

The statue is usually dated to 1869, as this is the year it was sold. However, archival evidence shows that it was completed closer to the end of the Civil War. In a letter dated January 28, 1866, Powers wrote to his patron Gardner Brewer of Boston that “the only statues finished or in progress (in marble) are ‘California’ quite done with its pedestal. The ‘Greek Slave’ is nearly done, and my ‘Eve’ or ‘Paradise Lost’ which is blocked out in a very fine piece of marble.” Powers gives the price of The Greek Slave as £800 and notes that it would be finished “in about 6 months.”[1] Assuming that Powers did indeed complete the statue within six months, this puts the date to 1866. The letter was mistakenly attributed to “Gardiner Mercer” by Richard P. Wunder and has hence been missing from the historiography.[2]  Thus, although Wunder did date the statue to 1866, his claim remained unsubstantiated. Further evidence for the date is now provided by a newspaper article published on October 17, 1867 (included here), which describes the statue in the studio. The author notes the distinct “chain [which] is composed of long, peculiar links, cut without piercing, from the same block with the figure, and differently shaped than the chains of others.” This detailed description suggests that the statue was in a finished state.