In this Research and Academic Program lecture, Ana Lucia Araujo (Howard University, Washington DC) draws on her project Global Slavery: A Visual History, arguing that the study of artworks and visual images depicting slavery and the trafficking of human beings produced around the globe over several centuries reveals how these atrocities carried several elements in common despite separation by time and space. The terms slavery and slave trade evoke images of African captives in the hold of slave ships and enslaved people laboring in plantations in the Americas. Yet, the institution of slavery has existed at least since antiquity. It existed in ancient Asia and subsisted in Europe during the Middle Ages. Slavery was also present in Africa and among indigenous populations in the Americas, prior to the arrival of European conquerors, traders, and colonizers. Slavery also existed across the Muslim world in Africa and Asia. But until the rise of the Atlantic slave trade in the late fifteenth century, only a small number of enslaved individuals were racialized as Black Africans.
A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.
Image: Anonymous, Two spittoons, 1715–c. 1725, faience. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
In this Research and Academic Program lecture, Ana Lucia Araujo (Howard University, Washington DC) draws on her project Global Slavery: A Visual History, arguing that the study of artworks and visual images depicting slavery and the trafficking of human beings produced around the globe over several centuries reveals how these atrocities carried several elements in common despite separation by time and space. The terms slavery and slave trade evoke images of African captives in the hold of slave ships and enslaved people laboring in plantations in the Americas. Yet, the institution of slavery has existed at least since antiquity. It existed in ancient Asia and subsisted in Europe during the Middle Ages. Slavery was also present in Africa and among indigenous populations in the Americas, prior to the arrival of European conquerors, traders, and colonizers. Slavery also existed across the Muslim world in Africa and Asia. But until the rise of the Atlantic slave trade in the late fifteenth century, only a small number of enslaved individuals were racialized as Black Africans.
A 5 pm reception in the Manton Research Center reading room precedes the event.
Image: Anonymous, Two spittoons, 1715–c. 1725, faience. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
