#13: The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters
“…historians have long assumed that slave labor was not suited to cities and therefore slavery in American cities was insignificant. But a re-examination of slavery in cities throughout the Atlantic World has demonstrated the importance of urban areas to the slave economy…especially port cities such as Savannah.”
—Leslie M. Harris & Daina Ramey Berry
The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters
Yes. This is a normal part of painting en plein air: You’ve got a perfect view of the scene you’re painting; then half-way through someone parks a big-ass truck in your line of sight!
That’s why these Postcards from Savannah need to be quick studies; something I can capture on a small canvas in a couple of hours. More often, it’s not a truck that gets in my way; it is the light that changes.
And the light is everything; for the properties of light determine my every color palate.
The Owens-Thomas House is a delightful challenge. I’ve painted it a couple of times en plein air prior to this attempt, but haven’t taken it on — yet — as a larger work. (But that I plan to do later this year!)
Located at 124 Abercorn Street in Savannah’s Historic District, the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters were designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976.
It was designed by English architect William Jay before he made his way to Savannah; Jay wanted the house to be ‘aesthetically compatible’ to the homes in Bath, England, where he resided — which is witnessed in the Bath-stone of its construction, as well as in its sophisticated architectural detail.
While in Savannah, William Jay went on to design other homes that have also become historic landmarks, such as the Scarborough House and the Telfair House. Naturally, both eventually will be featured here in my series of postcard-sized works. Jay remained in Savannah for 4-years and then returned to England in 1822.
Local attorney, George Welshman Owens purchased the mansion in 1830 and his grand-daughter, Margaret Thomas, gifted the house to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951.
The greater significance of this house today, of course, is the discovery and renovation in the 1990s of the carriage-house, along with the important uncovering of the long missing history of the slave quarters, to include the stories of the people who lived and were enslaved in them.
The best book I’ve found to learn about these essential stories is Slavery and Freedom in Savannah (2014), edited by Leslie M. Harris and Diana Ramey Berry.
Historians say that around 30-percent of Savannahs wealthier urban households owned slaves in the mid-nineteenth century. While slavery is invariably associated with the plantation system and thought as a rural phenomenon in the Antebellum South, its support of urban living had a massive influence on the development and maintenance of overall economic life within most southern cities.
Many of the Savannah’s prominent-businessman built fortunes through their involvement in the Atlantic slave trade; and many of them (like the Owens family) lived their lives in this city surrounded by slaves. ,
Luba’s Owens-Thomas House painting in progress.
