artisan7
African slave ship
2007 is the 200th anniversary of the Act of Abolition that outlawed the transportation of slaves by British ships and within the British Empire.. This is a photocollage with a print of the layout of the bow end of a slave ship, interlayered and contrasted with smiling African faces. This is best viewed large - 800 x 1678 pixels (click on 'all sizes' icon above).
]The original image is 4215 x 8839 pixels. Prints of this are available at any size or resolution - please contact me at mail@avonnova.co.uk.]
The image from which this is an extract, augmented to create the photocollage you see here, is the subject of a recent comment in The Friend, the Magazine of the Quakers, or the religious Society of Friends, for October 2010. I quote:
An image of evil. Early Quakers rarely hung pictures in their homes, but this image became an exception in the late 18th century. 'Stowage of the British slave ship "Brookes" under the regulated Slave Trade Act of 1788' was a landmark image in the history of political propaganda, devised not by an artist but by a campaign group, and has been described as 'the most politically influential picture ever made'.
Produced in April 1789 by Thomas Clarkson and the Quaker dominated Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, the printer was the Quaker James Phillips. The campaign to end the slave trade was begun by Quakers who saw it as a violation of their fundamental belief in the equality of all: an incontestable evil.
The diagram was not a record of fact. It was a hypothetical projection. The Plymouth branch of the Committee had discovered the plan of a loaded ship: a privy Council enquiry into the slave trade had measured the internal dimensions of a number of vessels and published the results.
The Committee chose a Liverpool slaver, Brookes, as an example and developed a statistical visualisation, demonstrating how the ship's legally-permitted number of captives, 454, might be accommodated. The diagram stuck to the letter of the law. In fact, the Brookes was known to have carried 609 captives on a previous voyage.
The diagram embodied the mindset of the slave trader. The image is a clinical, cold demonstration of the efficient use of space: the slavers called it 'tight-packed'. Slaves were placed like commodities and the diagram resembles the layout of a mass grave. The Quakers of the time acted on their belief that 'there is that of God in everyone'. The slave trade in Britain was ended with the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act on 25th March 1807.
African slave ship
2007 is the 200th anniversary of the Act of Abolition that outlawed the transportation of slaves by British ships and within the British Empire.. This is a photocollage with a print of the layout of the bow end of a slave ship, interlayered and contrasted with smiling African faces. This is best viewed large - 800 x 1678 pixels (click on 'all sizes' icon above).
]The original image is 4215 x 8839 pixels. Prints of this are available at any size or resolution - please contact me at mail@avonnova.co.uk.]
The image from which this is an extract, augmented to create the photocollage you see here, is the subject of a recent comment in The Friend, the Magazine of the Quakers, or the religious Society of Friends, for October 2010. I quote:
An image of evil. Early Quakers rarely hung pictures in their homes, but this image became an exception in the late 18th century. 'Stowage of the British slave ship "Brookes" under the regulated Slave Trade Act of 1788' was a landmark image in the history of political propaganda, devised not by an artist but by a campaign group, and has been described as 'the most politically influential picture ever made'.
Produced in April 1789 by Thomas Clarkson and the Quaker dominated Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, the printer was the Quaker James Phillips. The campaign to end the slave trade was begun by Quakers who saw it as a violation of their fundamental belief in the equality of all: an incontestable evil.
The diagram was not a record of fact. It was a hypothetical projection. The Plymouth branch of the Committee had discovered the plan of a loaded ship: a privy Council enquiry into the slave trade had measured the internal dimensions of a number of vessels and published the results.
The Committee chose a Liverpool slaver, Brookes, as an example and developed a statistical visualisation, demonstrating how the ship's legally-permitted number of captives, 454, might be accommodated. The diagram stuck to the letter of the law. In fact, the Brookes was known to have carried 609 captives on a previous voyage.
The diagram embodied the mindset of the slave trader. The image is a clinical, cold demonstration of the efficient use of space: the slavers called it 'tight-packed'. Slaves were placed like commodities and the diagram resembles the layout of a mass grave. The Quakers of the time acted on their belief that 'there is that of God in everyone'. The slave trade in Britain was ended with the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act on 25th March 1807.