The National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association was founded in 1898 by ex-slaves I.H. Dickerson and Callie House. It was one of the first organizations to advocate for ex-slave compensation. Members were provided with badges and certificates of membership. The certificate of membership read:
"Having paid the membership fee of 50 cents to aid the movement in securing the passage of the Ex-Slave Bounty and Pension Bill, as introduced February 17th, to the 57th House of Representative of The United States by the Hon. E.S. Blackburn of N. C. The holder of this Certificate agrees to pay ten cents per month to the local association to Aid the Sick and Bury The Dead. I hereby testify that I was born a slave in \\\\\\\\\\\\ and am entitled to all the benefits included in said Bill."
The badge on left was dug in Faison, North Carolina. The badge on the right was dug in Vicksburg, Virginia. Both were sold in 2015 by Civil War memorabilia dealers.

Medium Pot metal
Dimensions Each 1 1/4 × 1 1/4 × 1 1/4" (3.2 × 3.2 × 3.2 cm), frame 11 3/4 × 14 3/4 × 2" (29.8 × 37.5 × 5.1 cm)
Credit Fund for the Twenty-First Century
Object number 1345.2016.a-c
Department Painting & Sculpture

Explore more

Cameron Rowland

Cameron Rowland

American, born 1988 9 works online

Each of Cameron Rowland’s exhibitions includes a pamphlet containing an essay and captions written by the artist.

Learn more →
All works by Cameron Rowland →

From MoMA Design Store

Installation views

We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.

How we identified these works
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
Licensing
To reproduce installation views, please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations). You will need to include the object identification number found in the caption.
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].

Licensing

Artwork or archival images

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

Audio and film clips

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.

Text from a publication or the archives

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.