Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon

An engraving from the 18th century depicting the human cargo hold of a slave ship has become a cultural icon of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance. This image, first published by British abolitionists in 1788, exposed the widespread commercial practice of slavery and was reproduced and circulated by the tens of thousands around the Atlantic rim. Committed to Memory explores how this artifact of the fight against slavery became an enduring symbol of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance, and how it has been transformed into poetry, literature, visual art, sculpture, performance, and film by contemporary Black artists and their allies. The book features works from around the world and demonstrates how contemporary Black artists have used this iconic engraving to reflect on the trauma of slavery and come to terms with its legacy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 20 September 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

One of the most iconic representations of slavery is a schematic wood engraving that depicts the human cargo hold of a slave ship. Published by British abolitionists in 1788, the image exposed this widespread commercial practice for what it truly was: shocking, immoral, barbaric, and unimaginable. Printed as handbills and broadsides, the slave ship icon was easily reproduced and circulated by the tens of thousands around the Atlantic rim by the end of the eighteenth century.

Committed to Memory offers the first in-depth exploration of how this artifact of the fight against slavery became an enduring symbol of Black resistance, identity, and remembrance. Author Cheryl Finley traces how the slave ship icon became a powerful tool in the hands of British and American abolitionists, and how its radical potential was re-discovered in the twentieth century by Black artists, activists, writers, filmmakers, and curators. Finley provides provocative new insights into the works of Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Betye Saar, and many others. She demonstrates how the icon was transformed into poetry, literature, visual art, sculpture, performance, and film, becoming a medium through which diasporic Africans have reasserted their common identity and memorialized their ancestors.

Beautifully illustrated, Committed to Memory features works from around the world, taking readers from the United States and England to West Africa and the Caribbean. It showcases how contemporary Black artists and their allies have used this iconic eighteenth-century engraving to reflect on the trauma of slavery and come to terms with its legacy.

Weight: 878g
Dimension: 267 x 189 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691241067