9 The New World
A strange new life unlike anything previously imagined
Slavery I
1992 Wire & Aluminum 29x36x18" Portfo # 67
A platform of privilege separates a slave master and his wife from those whose labor supports a way of life in which they cannot participate. The chains represent their enslavement. Their lack of clothing indicates they owned nothing, their labor and earnings were for the benefit of others. The artist wished to illustrate how completely everything of value was stripped from them; name, identity, family, culture and history.
The woman's dress is more 20th century than 17th or 18th century. This symbolizes how profits from the slave trade, which boosted the economy of Europe and The Americas, continued to benefit those countries on into the 20th century.
There was always resistance, on the journey to the coast, on board the ships, and in the Americas
Maroon Soldier
H. 12" W. 12" D. 11" Portfo # 113
Maroon was a name given to so-called "wild and unruly" runaway slaves who escaped into remote areas of Brazil, Surinam and Jamaica where they established free communities.
Runaway with Iron Hook Collar
There were many torture devices used during the 400 years duraion of the Atlantic slave trade. An iron collar that could weigh as much as 25 pounds might be used to punish a slave who tried to escape. The wearer could not lie down to sleep.
A Runaway Finds Refuge
Wire & Aluminum. 37 x 30 x 24 inches, 1995, p #118
In spite of efforts of European colonials to promote hatred between Indians and Africans, thousands of African slaves had found safe harbor within the Indian communities by the time of the Revolutionary War.
The Seminole and Apalachee Indians of Spanish Florida were known to welcome runaways.
The Tuscarora also gave refuge. When war broke out between the Tuscarora and the colonials in 1711 many Africans fought with the Tuscaroras. One named Harry was said to have designed a Tuscarora fortress on a tributary of the Neuse River.
In 1725 a South Carolina slave holder complained the African slaves were becoming too well acquainted with the hill country of the Cherokee and were becoming not only fluent in English but also in the Cherokee language.
The Creeks also harbored some runaway slaves. In 1725, a Spanish delegation arrived in the principle town of the lower Creeks with an escaped Carolina slave who acted as interpreter between the Creeks and Spanish. Still another runaway slave was an interpreter between the French and the Creeks during this period.
Not all relations between the two groups were peaceful however. The Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek nations became slave owners themselves. Although they would sometimes adopt African runaways freely into their tribes, they also kept many runaways as their own slaves. Other times they would return them to the colonialists; while others returned only enough of them to satisfy white demands and still other Indians hunted the Africans down for the bounty.
Source: Red, White, And Black, Gary B. Nash, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1982
Man with Iron Hook Collar
Frederick Douglass
Harriett Tubman
H. 12" W. 12" D. 11" Portfo # 117
Born a slave on a Maryland Plantation around 1820, Harriett Tubman was a strong-willed, courageous woman whose real-life exploits surpass those of most fictional movie heroes today. John Brown called her General Tubman, Queen Victoria sent her a medal, slave owners offered forty thousand dollars for her capture, dead or alive. But with all their laws and their money they could not catch this uneducated former field hand who was prone to blackout spells.
Tubman had been hit in the head once with a lead weight and for the rest of her life would suddenly fall asleep with no warning. She couldn't read or write. Nonetheless, she slipped past paddyrollers (slave patrols) and blood hounds to escape, via the Underground Railroad, to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849.
A year later she returned, risking severe punishment or death, to help her family escape to freedom.
Tubman made 19 such trips, which she helped finance by working as a cook and a scrub woman. She helped more than 300 people escape from slavery on the Underground railroad and lived to brag that she never lost a passenger, although sometimes her passengers lost their nerve and wanted to quit. At those times, Tubman would draw and cock a large pistol and say, "You go or die."
This might seem harsh by today's standards but it was necessary not merely for motivation but to protect the Underground Railroad routes. Any slaves who returned to the plantations would have been tortured into revealing all they knew.
During the Civil War, Tubman served the Union army well as a cook, nurse, scout and spy. But she was still forced to ride in a baggage car of a train when she went home from the war. She did eventually receive a pension for her services but not until 1895.
After the war, Tubman continued to help others by sharing her food home with those less fortunate. She joined the women's movement and also worked with Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and others for women's rights. When she died on March 10th, 1913, she was one of the most respected women in the United States. We should always remember and honor this courageous lady. Any list of great Americans should include Harriett Tubman's name...Source material: Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia