Representing the Body of the Slave

How the bodies of slaves are pictured in art and written or spoken about is revealing of the attitudes of those who were depicting them, often with the intention of influencing the attitudes of others. Slaves could be presented as inferior to free people, and almost subhuman. Conversely, emphasis could be laid upon their essential humanity and even nobility. This book looks at examples of the physical depiction of slaves, from the ancient and medieval worlds and from slave societies of more recent times in the Americas and the Caribbean. Pictures, literature and documentary accounts by former slaves present different views of the slave. Only in some of these is a colour factor; rather, it is the status of the slave that makes the difference.