Tables are turned.

Take a closer look; your eyes are not playing jokes. When looking at the “Depiction of the successful slave rebellion in St Domingue” you will see something from history that you did not hear about. Blacks hanging whites? Yes, take a second look; art work like this does not come around this often. It is racial, it is sensitive and it is unique. This picture, courtesy of Anti-Slavery International, has helped bring about this unique piece of art during Black History Month. Paintings that can open your mind, tell narratives, or even make the viewer confused are great ways of displaying art that is worth a thousand words. When observing the picture, I want to be able to look past the common thought and bring about the true meaning of this work. Wanting to explore into the creator’s mind and discover how and why this drawing came about is another question that needs to be answered. Getting to understand the roots of the creators will help answer some of these questions.

Anti-Slavery International (ASI) is an organization that is always on the move to help create equality among the variety of cultures in our society. Their latest piece “Depiction of the successful slave rebellion in St Dominque”, which was published on the website BlackHistoryMonth.co.uk just a few months ago, has really caught my eye. In summary, Black History month is the basic recognition of any accomplishment made by blacks in the past. A.S.I. has been publishing works like this for years. The company as a whole is making one more step towards a world that can be considered equal for all.

In this sepia toned drawing, both race and equality are portrayed with great emphasis. At first glance it is almost hard to be able to tell a sure difference between the black and white men. Could the artist have made it this way to help show that watering down the color tone displays minimal racial differences? Adding to that, we can look at the nature of the painting’s history. At a glimpse, the viewer would see a white man engaging in the act Lynching. This is where the creators were clever enough to switch around the roles of the past. It is not the white man doing wrong; it is the black man taking over. Just by simply looking at the clothing, the viewer of this work can mistake the black man as the white man. The apparel of the men on the left is accurate of white male slave capturers, not of natives from the land. The artist gave both races of men the same tight pants and dark vests. By doing so, this gives each man more equality. One man on the left distinctly stood out more than the other when looking closer. This man looks as if he were actually in his native clothing, not dressed in white European clothing. Could this show the nature of both sides to this conflict?




The sepia toned theme represented throughout the drawing creates somewhat of a dulling of the senses. In return gives the lighting a different meaning. The drawing lacks a strong presence of a desired lighting which corresponds to the angle of which the drawing is presented. Just as it is in the front of the painting it pans into the distance as well and displays the same fate for the other men across the land. The angle and depth of this work is phenomenal because it can keep the attention of the audience and have them striving for more. When looking deeper into the picture, being historically correct, the locations of the acts were usually located in America. However, if looked at close enough, the foliage looks native to the land of Africa. This depicts another way of how this work is somewhat twisted in regards to the black male’s sense of equality.

As we can tell, this image covers several areas dealing with the topic of race. This touches on a side of history and goes hand-in-hand of how all these events all came to be. It started when wealthy white males from Europe traveled across the ocean to dominate small tribes of people and enforce their new way of life upon them. The results from these so called efforts to expand did not work out well in any way. In return, many Africans made the journey to America through force. This resulted in over 200 years of slavery and many deaths. Since then we still have some controversial differences between the cultures of white and black people of our nation. Can this piece of art be a symbol of change, hope or rebellion? Some of the gestures of the black males in this portrait can be taken into perspective in many ways. Was this done to show humiliation or to prove a point of how this type of scandal was wrong in many ways? Could the man in the back be laughing at the man dying? Either way, this can be viewed differently by everyone with their own unique feelings towards it. Personally, no one should ever have to be a witness to a hate crime like this. That is why seeing this image can really help to open the eyes of many onlookers, educated or not.

With new views forming and constant analyzing, the viewer is trying to gather all angles of this work. Does this display help make the viewer gain knowledge of our ugly past, or enter into a new realm of thought? Can we learn from the context of the drawing while the joyful looking men are hanging the sad helpless others? Bringing this into prospective during this years past Black History month, we can ask ourselves if we have changed our ways to a new positive path. Does having a history month dedicated to blacks help promote a positive meaning? To answer that question, you have to respect all viewers’ demographics. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This quote helped lead our nation into the Civil Rights Movement. A movement just like in the drawing, which stirred an uprising that made a dramatic change.




Just as President Obama’s slogan campaign stated “Change”, change can be all the difference. This could be the larger overview of this drawing, the true deeper meaning behind the lines of every stroke placed on piece of paper it was created on. Some change was done, but “some” is never enough. Maybe that is what is trying to be displayed here. Once we can erase any type of racial issue from our minds is when we can say we fulfilled the meaning of change. Whether this change is positive or not, as long as the image did something to help stimulate a new feeling towards this subject, then it will be considered a success. We can use this as a tool to help people see what went on at the start of our country. As for the mean time, this gives us a solid visual aid into how we should never repeat history. And by not repeating history we can hopefully learn from the past and not make the same mistakes they did. Along with A.S.I. and its future works of art for Black History Month, it can always be a part of that little step towards a bigger common goal of change and equality.