PORTFOLIOS > Ain't I a Woman

Your Own Vine and Fig Tree
Your Own Vine and Fig Tree
2021


But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

-King James Bible

"Under their vine and fig tree" is a phrase quoted in the Hebrew Scriptures and George Washington used this phrase multiple times in correspondence throughout his life, and one can find Washington reference it almost fifty times. The phrase refers to the independence of the peasant farmer who is freed from military oppression, yet Washington, a slaveowner, denied this independence to the people whose very bodies he owned and subjugated to oppression.