Question

1. According to The County Election, who participated in elections? Who was excluded?

Answer 1

In 1852 George Caleb Bingham, also known as ‘the Missouri artist’, painted The County Election, the first painting which pictures the voting process in Missouri. In The County Election, Bingham presents a variety of people of different ages and social stratum walking up the stairs to vote and, thus, he suggests the inclusiveness of a democratic society. In this painting, he suggests that all men appear as equals, no one vote worth more than another.  However, African Americans as well as women are not included in this voting process. Neither of them would enjoy the right to vote until some years later.