William Blake Abolitionist Movement Essay

In the early seventeenth and eighteenth century, African Americans were often used as European slaves to help increase white wealth and power. African American slaves were easier to dominate and cheaper to obtain compared to the indentured servants, which caused slave dehumanization and exploitation. By the mid-19th century, a great debate over slavery was formed that attempted to outlaw all slavery and end racial segregation and discrimination, creating the Abolitionist movement. Inexpensive prints and large-scale sculptures were used to spread the message of the movement. William Blake, an important abolitionist leader, created art that portrayed the adversities slaves’ endured. Blake’s giclée print, ‘Flagellation of a Female Samboe Slave’, highlights the importance of art in the Abolitionist movement and illustrates how cruel slaves were treated and discriminated. Blake’s giclée print portrays a woman in pain and agony hanging from a tree with deep gashes, in the background two white men held long whips while giving slave men orders. The female slave was an eighteen-year old girl who was …show more content…
Although many Europeans grew wealthy in the slave trade before the ownership of slaves was outlawed, that region of the country became the center of abolishment. Newspapers and pamphlets against slavery were printed in great amounts that by 1820 South Carolina introduced penalties for anyone who introduced anti-slavery material to the state. The publications described slavery as a social and moral evil, and displayed African American writings and artworks to show that Africans were able to learn just like Europeans. However, in order to convince whites that owning slaves was wrong, they had to persuade them to believe that Africans were