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SLAVES WAITING FOR SALE: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade. By Maurie D. McInnis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2011.
In Slaves Waiting for Sale Maurie D. McInnis examines "the visual and material culture of the American slave trade" focusing on artists' depictions of the domestic slave trade found in a variety of places (230, note 14). Some of the work analyzed appeared in major installations such as the Royal Academy of the Arts' National Gallery in London while others were tucked away in novels, history books, and nineteenth-century newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets. Centering the discussion around the work of artist Eyre Crowe, McInnis traces his journey to the United States with William Makepeace Thackerary, the famous author and satirist. Thackerary brought Crowe with him on a six-month speaking tour, which began in October 1852. Although Crowe served as Thackerary's secretary, the two had been good friends for years. During their brief travels in the United States, they witnessed slavery and the domestic traffic in human chattels. Slave auctions in particular, literally transformed Crowe's focus and served as the "thematic watershed for his art" (2).
The book traces this tour and addresses several works of art that will be familiar to...