The Oath of the Ancestors

~From the beginning of his artistic formation in San Juan in the 1850s, Francisco Oller developed a distinguished career as a landscapist, portraitist, and painter of still lifes, genre paintings, and history paintings. His work is varied, and his styles developed gradually as he studied with a local master in Puerto Rico and, later, in...

~In late 1862, Édouard Manet (1832–1883) noted in his studio carnet that a model he described as “Laure, très belle négresse” (“Laure, very beautiful black woman”) sat for a portrait in his rue...

The purchase of slaves in Africa was, as we have seen, infrequently depicted in the eighteenth century. But the acquisition of slaves was only the initial stage of the process of enslavement. From Africa the slaves were transported in large numbers in ships adapted for the purpose to colonies—the dreaded Middle Passage—and if they survived the journey, they were put to work on...