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CONFEDERATE CURRENCY: 

THE COLOR OF MONEY

A collection by artist John W. Jones revealing the truth of the institution of slavery.

Confederate Currency: The Color of Money, is a collection of 300 paintings by artist, John W. Jones. Drawn from the money notes of nineteenth-century America, these paintings consider the inextricable relationship between the enslavement of Africans and the foundation of American economic power.

Debates about how we remember the Confederacy continue in the present from flags to monuments, but the goal of this exhibition is healing through education.

Confederate Currency: The Color of Money is an art-based educational initiative featuring paintings of enslaved people discovered on confederate and southern states’ currency. Three hundred paintings by African American Artist, John W. Jones, provide a sense of dignity to the enslaved subjects while shedding new light on the relationship between slavery, institutional racism, and the economic making of America.

The Truth

Peoples of African descent, against their will, their lives and labor stolen, drove the greatest material enterprise in history — the building of the world’s most powerful economy. Through successive generations, African-Americans have suffered greatly under the weight of colonialism, anti-blackness, and racism. Despite these horrific injustices, what has emerged is a people of great resilience, depth of character, and an unparalleled culture of beauty and joy. According to Baha’i teachings, dating back more than a century, people of African descent are likened to the “pupil of the eye” through which the “light of the spirit shineth forth.”

IT'S...

Watch this 60-second video!

ABOUT THE ARTIST:  John W. Jones

John W. Jones, born on May 11, 1950 in Columbia, S.C., has been a freelance artist and illustrator for more than 25 years. Jones explores life through art. This multi-talented artist uses oils, acrylics and watercolors for his paintings. Striving for detail in light and reflection, he meticulously draws each painting first, and then layers it with color, resulting in realistic interpretations of everyday life and landscapes.

Mr. Jones is the artist and author of the book and traveling exhibition: ‘Confederate Currency: The Color of Money, Images of Slavery in Confederate and Southern States Currency’. The exhibition has been featured in some 260 top media outlets including The New York Times, Time Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, CNN, and National Public Radio.

Press & Reviews

Interview from the Miami Herald

WLRN Public Radio Interview

Interview with HOT105

Download the Brochure

Miami Herald – The Color of Money (2021)

When Slaves and Currency Were One

A Look at the Color of Civil War Money

Banking on Slavery

Slavery’s Currency Invalidated

The Color of Money

Confederate money talks, activists say

Notes Inspire Artist’s Work

Protests in Acrylic

View All Press
“Artist John W. Jones doesn't see himself as a teacher. Yet through his thought-provoking paintings of Confederate money, he teaches an important lesson in history.”
Shannon PeaseThe Miami Herald
"Jones is part of the leading edge of African American artists who are re-engaging the past in a way that is political but has never before been seen. While Jones' paintings demonstrate some nostalgia for the pastoral life of the old South, he is also critiquing the deceptive romanticism of the engravers."
Juliette Harris, editor The International Review of African American Art, Hampton University Museum
“…. A stunning exhibition. The exhibits literally dazzle the eye. Jones magnifies this picture of prosperity and good will with his strong representations of the delicate engraved scenes on antique currency, and reveals clearly the deception behind the pretty pictures.”
ANNE PRICE, arts critic,Baton Rouge Advocate
John W. Jones took the romanticized slave-labor scenes from Confederate currency and reproduced them in oil paintings paired with the bills. The effect is to punctuate the exploitation of blacks for profit. One scene depicts a sun-lit goddess of good fortune in repose, counting her gold as slaves toil in the fields behind her.
-Steve LopezTime Magazine
"If pictures are worth a thousand words, then Mr. Jones' paintings can each be read like a history book."
-Carol BaldwinCharlotte Observer
"Today, the little boy (Jones) who once drew in the dirt has become known for bringing to the nation's attention the fact that the Confederacy promoted the money-making virtues of slavery by engraving on its currency images of slaves at work."
-Dottie AshleyCharleston Post and Courier
"We did this exhibit because of what John showed us about the South. We hear a lot these days about how the Confederacy was really about states' rights and not slavery. But the currency itself tells the truth. It shows how they saw us, and how they wanted to keep seeing us."
-W. Marvin Dulaney, director Avery Research Center, professor and chair of the history department at the College of Charleston, SC
"Jones depicts the slaves in bright clothing. He lavishes attention on the sky, sometimes filling it with scudding gray clouds, other times making it the violet of evening or yellow-hot midday. ... He's taken tiny images, where the slaves' faces can barely be seen, and brought them and the land around them to life."
-Jeffrey DayThe State
For the most part, Jones tried to render the images as they appear. But in many cases, the figures are so small and indistinct that he had them blown up 400 and 500 percent at Kinko's and still had to use his imagination to fill in the details. He had to dress them, color them, give them faces (which explains why many of his slaves resemble friends and relatives).
-Jim AuchmuteyThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The exhibition becomes even more timely as one reads that much of the Confederate currency printed prior to the Civil War was printed not in the South but in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. It is one more example how slavery's profits were enjoyed by the entire nation.”
-Derrick Z. JacksonBoston Globe
“If ever there is doubt about the central role slaves played in the South, that is to say, America, one needs look no further than its dollar bills.”
-Les PayneNewsday
"Hardly a day goes by when the question of the Confederacy does not come up, that its legacy does not impact some dimension of everyday life and public policy. The Civil War was fought over issues people felt strongly about, issues about states' rights, the economy, slavery and African-American participation in American life.”
John Coski, historianMuseum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia quoted in Chicago Tribune
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