American Art Collaborative

Eastman Johnson was born in Fryeburg, Maine, a town recognized for its groves of maple trees and for the large quantities of maple sugar produced there. During the Civil War Johnson made several trips to his hometown to paint the annual “sugaring-off” party, a popular, late-winter tradition in maple-producing regions. In addition to his personal nostalgia for the Fryeburg maple-sugar camp, Johnson’s interest in the subject was likely related to his political position as a strong supporter of the Union cause. Produced entirely in the northern states of the Union, maple sugar was championed by abolitionists as an ethical alternative to cane sugar, harvested by black slaves in the South.