Silent Sam Stirs Struggle

Hey everybody, yep, it’s that time again, I’m going to take you on another art tour. This time the piece will be a bit better known, though many still don’t know about it, or the message behind it. The work is the Confederate Statue, better known as “Silent Sam”.

My buddy is Sam is best known for the controversy he sparks. Silent Sam is a bronze statue resting upon a marble pedestal with a bronze printing of a woman trying to get a student to fight in the war.

He stands tall with his gun in hand, but has no ammunition on his person, and it is for this reason that he has come to be known as “silent”; he has no shot to fire. I see this statue as a reminder of the students who fought and died in the Civil War.

Others see it as a throwback to the times of the war, and even go so far as to claim that it promotes slavery.

This controversy over Sam has been one of the loudest, and angriest, on campus. When I was looking at the statue, I felt that what we were doing to it was wrong. This statue stands alone, and quiet forever, to honor all of those students who died, and could speak no more.

Here we are, arguing and yelling, and missing the entire point of the statue. If he was supposed to be for slavery, then why can’t he shoot his gun? Why does the boy in the printing seem so distressed about what he is going to do? Sam is meant to honor and remind all of us of those who fought and died.

I hope that you will take my view on the statue, but whatever you believe, Silent Sam is definitely worth seeing. It is a place where we can look back and think about those who died, and why they did. This is the kind of art truly worth having, one which makes people think. As far as campus art goes this is one of the most well known, and one of my favorites.

Here we are again at the end of a post, so have a good time, at least until we meet again.