THE ICONOGRAPHY OF SLAVERY

An Online Professional Development Seminarfrom

The National Humanities Center

7-8:30 p.m. (EST)October 14, 2010

LeaderMaurie NcInnis

Associate Professor American Art and Material Culture

Director, American Studies University of Virginia

Description of a slave ship, ca. 1798

Am I Not a Man and a Brother?Wedgwood medallion, British Museum

Discussion Questions

These are the first images created about slavery.

What message do they convey about slavery?

What reaction might anti-slavery organizers have hoped to provoke?

Discussion Questions

Images such as this one were printed on broadsides and appeared in newspapers throughout America. They became so common that newspapers had special printer's blocks of runaway slaves and used them to indicate any announcement about slavery, not just ones that referenced runaways.

What message does such an image, and the text that often accompanied them, communicate?

Discussion Questions

These images show scenes of torture inflicted upon slaves, a topic that was frequently represented by anti-slavery artists.

How did these two artists treat the subject similarly?

What differences do you notice?

How do those differences create distinct messages?

Discussion Questions

These two images take up quite different messages about slavery.

What is that new message and how has that been portrayed?

How does that new message shift the conversation about slavery in America?

Discussion Questions

These two images are among the first to represent a slave auction.

What is similar in how the artists decided to depict the event and what is different? What do those differences suggest?

Why would a slave auction be a topic of interest to artists?

How do these images compare to the stories of being sold that slaves themselves told? What is missing?

Discussion Questions

This small statue was made for mass distribution for Christmas 1859, yet the sculptor was disappointed because most stores in New York City refused to carry it.

Why might that be?

What does that tell us about anti-slavery sentiment at that time?

John Rogers, The Slave Auction, 1859

Discussion Questions

These two images came out after the passage of the controversial Fugitive Slave Act that was part of the Compromise of 1850.

What different messages do these images send?

What role did politics play in anti-slavery opinion?

Effects of the Fugitive-Slave-Law

Holy Bible

Thou shalt not deliver unto the master his servant which has escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee. Even among you in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it likest him best. Thou shalt not oppress him.

Deut. XXIII II 16

Declaration of Independence

We hold that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Slavery as It Exists in America

“Is this the way slaves are treated in the South?”

“It is as a general thing some few exceptions after mine have done a certain amount of labor which they finish by 4 or 5 P.M. I allow them to enjoy themselves in any reasonable way.”

“Is it possible that we of the North have been deceived by false reports? Why did not we visit the South before we caused this trouble between North and South and so much hard feeling among our friends at home?”

“I believe our visitors will tell a different story when they return to the North. The thought of this Union being dissolved is a dreadful thing to be contemplated, but we must stand up for our rights, let the consequence be what it may.”_____________________________________________________________________________________

Slavery as It Exists in Great Britain

“Why my Dear Friend, how is it that you look so old? You know we were playmates when boys.”

“Ah! Farmer, we operatives are fast men and generally die at age Forty.”

“Oh dear, what wretched slaves this Factory Life makes of me and my children.”

“I say, Bill, I am going to run away from the factory and go to the coal mines where they have to work only 14 hours a Day instead of 17 as you do here.”

“Oh how I would like to have such a comfortable place. Won’t you speak a good word for me, Tom?”

“Thank God my factory slavery will soon be over.”

“See Bulwer’s “England and the English”

Thompson, the English Slave Agitator“I am proud to boast that slavery does not breathe in England.”See his speech at the African Church in Belknap St.

Discussion Questions

This broadside told the story of the life of Anthony Burns, one of the most famous of the fugitive slaves who was captured in the North and returned to the South.

How does the artist use imagery to tell the story of the life of Anthony Burns?

How might his story be similar to or different from that of other slaves?

Discussion Questions

These two images appeared in the London Royal Academy exhibition of 1861, which opened just weeks after the start of America's Civil War. For obvious reasons, critics compared them to one another, preferring the one by Crowe. They thought it was a novel and remarkable way to tell the story of American slavery. Why might that be?

How do each of these images tell the story of slavery?

How did these images differ from the accounts that slaves told themselves?

Eyre Crowe, Slaves Waiting for Sale, 1861

Richard Ansdell, Hunted Slaves, 1861