Figure 1.--Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an important pre-Raphaelite artist, painted this alegory, "The Beloved" in London while the Civil War was being fought in America. The little boy was a slave that his owner brought to England with her. Rossetti noticed him in front of a London hotel.

The available imagery of African slavery in America is extremely revealing. There are almost no paintings of Afruican slaves from the ante-beleum South. A few paintings exist of freed slaves who had their portraits painted, but very few paintings were done of slaves by their masters. This was because their owners had no interest in spending money on slaves, but also because the South as the 19th century progressed became increasingly defenside as abolitionist sentiment grew. Few plantation owners wanted images of slavery. There is one exception here. Wealthy Souttherners visited Europe before the War and when doing so often took personal slaves with them. Europeans unaccutomed to Blacks were intrigued and some portraits made in Europe included these slaves--often elaborately costumed. In other instances artists saw the slaves as an interesting adornment to their paintings. Portraits actually made in the South, even by primitive artists to our knowledge, never included slaves. Certainly not in the portraits of wealthy plantation owners. There exist today many images of happy, singing slaves picking cotton with a grand plantation in the background. These images almost all come from the post-Civil War era as White Southerners began to perpetuate the Lost Cause theme, including the claim that Blacks were happy and well off on Southern plantations. There are like wise few photographs. Photography was still new even in the 1850s. Photographic portraits were extremely expensive until the appaearance of CDVs in the early 1860s. Few plantation owners had any interest in photographing his slaves, especially when the process was still expensive. Almost all the photographs of slaves were taken in the early 1860s as Federal troops moved south. Some of the photographic portraits taken at this time were heart-rending and very sobering indeed.

Paintings

The available imagery, or in fact lack of imagery, of African slavery in America is extremely revealing. There are almost no paintings of Afruican slaves from the ante-beleum South. A few paintings exist of freed slaves who had their portraits painted, but very few paintings were done of slaves by their masters. This was because their owners had no interest in spending money on slaves, but also because the South as the 19th century progressed became increasingly defenside as abolitionist sentiment grew. Few plantation owners wanted images of slavery. There is one exception here. Wealthy Souttherners visited Europe before the War and when doing so often took personal slaves with them. Europeans unaccutomed to Blacks were intrigued and numerous portraits of Blacks or with Blacks were made in Europe. A Canadian reader reports, "There were a lot of paintings with Blacks made during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic Periods in Europe". This included in several instances during the Romantic Period, Black slaves brought to Europe by their American owners. Some of these portraits made in Europe included often elaborately costumed slaves. In many cases slave children were involved, I'm not precisely sure why, but may because they were less likekly to use the opportunity to run away from their masters, The painting here was the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an important English pre-Raphaelite artist. In other instances artists saw the slaves as an interesting adornment to their paintings. Portraits actually made in the South, even by primitive artists to our knowledge, never included slaves. Certainly not in the portraits of wealthy plantation owners. There exist today many images of happy, singing slaves picking cotton with a grand plantation in the background. These iages almost all come from the post-Civil War era as White Southerners began to perpetuate the Lost Cause theme, including the claim that Blacks were happy and well off on Southern plantations.

Drawings

Paintings are of course the most dramatic images. There are, however, relatively few paintings depicting American slavery. Few contemporary artists were interested in the subject. Of course a factor was economics. Slaves would not have the money to commission portraits. Slave owners were also not all that interested in paying an expensive commission to have their slaves painted. As a result, most of the images we have found are drawings. These drawings could be reproduced through engravings for publication. A drawing involved much less time to create. And there was a market for such images in the growing abolitionist press. No all drawings are anti-slavery. Some drawings done in the South were pro-slavery, but these seem much more limited than the antislavery drawings. This seems to us a reflection of the growing abolitionist movement in America. It seems to that a substantial number of these images show a decided bias. Relatively few images seem to have been done by disinterested illustrators. This presents a problem, because a drawing can depict anything the illustrator wants to show. Thus the accuracy of drawings, even contemporary drawings have to be assessed. They may show the illustrators philodophical and political attitudes more than a faithful depiction of reality. For HBC this is also interesting, but to the etent we can we will try to acquire any available information on the images depicted.

Photographs

There are like wise few photographs of slaves from the American South, either children or adults. Photography was still new even in the 1850s. Photographic portraits were extremely expensive until the appaearance of CDVs in the early 1860s. Few plantation owners had any interest in photographing his slaves, especially when the process was still expensive. Almost all the photographs of slaves were taken in the early 1860s as Federal troops moved south. Some of the photographic portraits taken at this time were heart-rending and very sobering indeed.

Created: August 5, 2003
Last updated: 2:27 AM 4/25/2006