Clave (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)]]> Slavery
Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Rotterdam, The Netherlands]]>
Commemorative sculpture]]> here.]]>
"Het lichaam is dat slaaf is vertrekt de ziel die vrij is blijft"]]>
http://www.artatsite.com/Rotterdam/details/Silva-Alex-da-Slavernijmonument-Clave-sculpture-statue-Art-At-Site-Rotterdam.html]]>
Gilt of Cain (London, England)]]> Slavery
Resistance
Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Public art
Public sculpture
London, UK]]>
Commemorative sculpture]]> William Wilberforce heard the anti-slavery sermons of the Rev. John Newton, the monument consists of 17 carved granite columns clustered around a granite podium. The curvilinear forms of the columns recall the growing stems of sugarcane. According to the artists, the position of the columns and podium are meant to suggest a group of people “gathered to listen to a speaker – perhaps the Rev Newton preaching against slavery, perhaps a trader auctioning his slaves, perhaps William Wilberforce campaigning in front of an audience.” Excerpts from Lemn Sissay's poem, the Gilt of Cain, are inscribed on the work. The words are inscribed in the same typography used in early abolitionist literature printed near the site.]]> here.]]>
Gilt of Cain by Michael Visocchi & Lemn Sissay

This powerful sculpture was unveiled by the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on 4th September 2008. The sculpture commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, which began the process of the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.

Fen Court is the site of a churchyard formerly of St Gabriel’s Fenchurch St and now in the Parish of St Edmund the King and St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard St. The latter has a strong historical connection with the abolitionist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Rev John Newton, a slave-trader turned preacher and abolitionist, was rector of St Mary Woolnoth from 1780 – 1807. Newton worked closely alongside the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce.

The granite sculpture is composed of a group of columns surrounding a podium. The podium calls to mind an ecclesiastical pulpit or slave auctioneer’s stance, whilst the columns evoke stems of sugar cane and are positioned to suggest an anonymous crowd or congregation gathered to listen to a speaker.

The artwork is the result of a collaboration between sculptor Michael Visocchi and poet Lemn Sissay. Extracts from Lemn Sissay’s poem, ‘Gilt of Cain’, are engraved into the granite. The poem skilfully weaves the coded language of the City’s stock exchange trading floor with biblical Old Testament references.

Poem inscribe on work:

"The Gilt of Cain By Lemn Sissay, 2007

Here is the ask price on the closed position, history is no inherent acquisition for here the Technical Correction upon the act, a merger of truth and in actual fact on the spot, on the money – the spread. The dealer lied when the dealer said the bull was charging the bear was dead, the market must calculate per capita, not head. And great traders acting in concert, arms rise as the actuals frought on the sea of franchise thrown overboard into the exchange to drown in distressed brokers disconsolate frown. In Accounting liquidity is a mounting morbidity but raising the arms with such rigid rapidity… Oh the reaping the raping rapacious fluidity. the violence the vicious and vexed volatility. The roaring trade floor rises above crashing waves: the traders buy ships, beneath the slaves. Sway machete back, sway machete again cut back the Sugar Rush, Cain. The whipsaw it’s all and the whip saw it all The rising market and the cargo fall Who’ll enter “Jerusalem” make the margin call for Abel? Who will kick over the stall and turn the table? Cain gathers cane as gilt-gift to his land But whose sword of truth shall not sleep in hand? Who shall unlock the stocks and share? Break the bond the bind unbound - lay bare The Truth. Cash flow runs deep but spirit deeper You ask Am I my brothers keeper? I answer by nature by spirit by rightful laws My name, my brother, Wilberforce. This project was initiated by Black British Heritage and the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth and was commissioned by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the British Land Company."]]>
I Am Queen Mary (Copenhagen, Denmark)]]> Slavery
Resistance
Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade; Diaspora
Copenhagen, Denmark]]>
Thomas, Mary (Queen Mary), ca. 1848–1905]]> Commemorative sculpture]]>
Visually, the work reminds viewers of the long and sustained history of the black freedom struggle. According to the artists, the torch and the cane bill are symbols of colonial resistance, while Queen Mary's seated pose mirrors the 1967 photograph of Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party.

The statue’s plinth incorporates the coral foundations of historic buildings on St. Croix, which were cut from the ocean by enslaved Africans. The work's unveiling coincided with the centennial year commemorating Denmark's sale of the islands of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas to the United States in 1917. The work sits in front of what was once a warehouse for Caribbean sugar and rum, and just over a mile from where Thomas was jailed after her arrest for her role in the labor uprising. Convicted of arson and looting and sentenced to death, her sentence was commuted to life imprison. In 1882 Thomas was transferred to Copenhagen and placed at the Women's Prison, Christianshavn, but in 1887 was sent back to Christiansted, St. Croix to serve the remainder of her sentence.]]>
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Captured Africans (Lancaster, England)]]> Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Lancaster, United Kingdom]]>
Commemorative sculpture]]> Six rectangular perspex blocks, suspended between a rectangular, stainless steel column and an oblong, stone column, rests on a circular base embellished with a mosaic and small metal sculptures. The work is meant to recall the decks of the transatlantic slave ships that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas. The six perspex blocks are inscribed with the names of the different commodity objects these ships transported to and from the Americas: wealth, cotton, rum, mahogany, sugar, and slaves. The stainless steel column lists many of the slave ships that departed from Lancaster and the number of slaves these vessels forcibly seized in Africa. Underscoring the history of these horrific nautical journeys, the mosaic depicts a map detailing the routes of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, while the metal figures personify the trauma and violence of the Middle Passage.

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Lancaster Guardian. Accessed April 29, 2019, https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/slave-memorial-is-labour-of-love-1-1165642]]>
Slavernijmonument (National Slavery Monument) (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)]]> Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Amsterdam, Netherlands]]>
Commemorative sculpture]]> Taken collectively, the elongated bronze figures of enslaved Africans evoke the hull of a ship. An over life-sized woman, her arms outstretched as she arches her body backward, recalls the ship’s prow. The stern of the ship is personified by a number of nude figures, staggering forward, tethered to one another by the shackles around their necks and wrists. The rough-hewn metal texture of the sculptural surface abstracts the individual features of each figure. The memorial commemorates the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands in 1863.

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Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery (Nantes, France)]]> Slavery-Emancipation
Slavery-Abolition
Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Nantes, France]]>
Memorial]]> ibliographic citation).]]> Bonder, Julian (architect)]]> here.]]> Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Accessed April 29, 2019. https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/2012/04/memorial-by-krzysztof-wodiczko-and-julian-bonder-mdess-96-to/]]>
Thomas Alexandre Dumas Slavery Memorial (Paris, France)]]> Fers]]> Slavery-Emancipation
Slavery-Abolition
Middle Passage
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Slave Trade
Diaspora
Paris, France]]>
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 1762-1806]]> Commemorative sculpture]]> General Dumas, the first black general in France and the abolition of slavery. The work, which consists of broken shackles and iron chains, was erected on the site of Alphonse de Perrin de Moncel's Monument au Général Dumas, 1913, which was destroyed during the Nazi occupation of France.]]> Le Parisien. Accessed April 29, 2019, http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/paris-75017/un-symbole-contre-l-esclavage-en-plein-paris-18-02-2009-414757.php]]>