Images of Empire: SLAVE TRADE

Equiano's autobiography, first published in 1789, is probably the most quoted, reprinted and widely published writing by an African before the twentieth century. His words have been extracted and quoted, anthologized and interpreted in dozens of books and articles. More than any single contemporary, Equiano speaks for the fate of millions of Africans in the era of the transatlantic slave trade.

Until now, however, no one has written a serious - or even a popular - biographical study of this remarkable man. Few critics doubt the importance of his writing; few historians would deny the significance of his life and times. Scholars have analysed his work from literary and historical angles, but no one has really studied the man himself. This is the first study which attempts to create a rounded portrait of the man behind the literary image, and to study Equiano in the context of Atlantic slavery. It is, at one and the same time, an original portrait of a remarkable African -- who spoke for millions -- and a study of the world of eighteenth-century Atlantic slavery.

Presenting an important opportunity to assess how black figures have been portrayed in British art, Black Victorians is a fascinating survey of a subject that has been given little coverage to date. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a fresh perspective on a well-documented period of British history.

This groundbreaking work provides an invaluable addition to the limited literature now available on the visual images associated with slavery and abolition, integrated into a sophisticated analysis of their meaning and legacy today. Moving deftly between text and image, Marcus Wood examines paintings, woodcuts, diaries, nineteenth century short stories and twentieth century criticism. Though much has been written on the institution of slavery, rarely are the images subject to the sort of close reading applied to written sources. There are grand narratives on large academic canvases, and there are heroic sculptures and friezes, almost always built to commemorate the emancipation moment. The question remains: are they adequate, or even decent, tools for memory ? This book tries to find ways of reading images which emerge as ever more contradictory in terms of what they say about white representation of slavery, and what they imply for black and white understanding of this inheritance. Throughout thisimportant volume, the author underscores two vital themes: one, that visual presentation of slavery in England and America has been utterly dishonest to its subject, and the other a meditation on whether the ruptures of the slave experience - middle passage, bondage, and torture -- can be adequately represented and remembered. As the author writes, "This history is not over, and is evolving. The hope is that the visual representation of slavery will not continue to be unseen, that the disguises we impose on what we look at must be seen beyond."

Representing Slavery explores the extensive collections of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, highlighting the unique insights they provide into the histories and legacies of slavery, the slave trade and abolition from the mid-16th until the early 20th centuries. Ten specially commissioned essays set the collections in their historical context, demonstrating the scale and brutality of slavery, the nature and extent of African resistance, and the widespread efforts to achieve abolition and emancipation.

"White on Black is a compelling visual history of the development of Western stereotypes of black people over the last two hundred years. Its purpose is to show the pervasiveness of prejudice against blacks in Europe and America as expressed in stock-in-trade racist imagery and caricature. Reproducing a wide range of powerful illustrations - from engravings and lithographs to advertisements, chocolate wrappers, biscuit tins, dolls, posters and comic strips - the book exposes the hidden assumptions of even those who view themselves as unprejudiced." "Jan Nederveen Pieterse sets Western images of Africa and blacks in a chronological framework, analysing representations from medieval times, from the colonial period with its explorers, settlers and missionaries, from the eras of slavery and abolition, and from the present day. He examines the persistence of stereotypical images in the multicultural societies of the twentieth century, and in their relations with Africa." "Pieterse reveals the key images by which Blacks have commonly been depicted in the West: as servants, entertainers, and athletes, and as mythical figures such as Sambo and Uncle Tom in the United States, Golliwog in Britain, Bamboula in France and Black Peter in The Netherlands. Looking at conventional portrayals of blacks in the nursery, in the area of sexuality, and in commerce and advertising, Pieterse explores the conceptual roots of these recurring stereotypes." "The images presented in the book, selected from a substantial collection of negrophilia from around the world, have a direct and dramatic impact. They raise disturbing questions about the expression of power within popular culture, and the force of caricature, humour and parody as instruments of oppression."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved