EARLIEST KNOWN PAINTING OF AN AFRICAN SLAVE FOUND (3569 hits)
A rare oil painting of an African slave from circa 1733 has been acquired by Virginia’s Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which runs the history museums at the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. The portrait is one of a pair of paintings by William Hoare of Bath that shows the earliest known depictions of an African slave in the American colonies.
The portrait depicts Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, an educated African from a prominent family of Muslim clerics who was kidnapped on the Gambia River in 1731 and sold into slavery in colonial Maryland. Two years later, Diallo was freed, thanks to his future biographer Thomas Bluett, and journeyed to England.
There, he sat for a portrait with Hoare, despite religious misgivings. In the painting, Diallo wears his traditional African garb: a white robe and turban, with a bright red leather pouch that probably contains the Koran, worn around his neck.
The work has been purchased for the planned American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, scheduled to open in late 2016, but will be on display at the Yorktown Victory Center June 14–August 3. A second version of the painting can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery of London thanks to a long-term loan from the Qatar Museums Authority.
“This portrait is a powerful symbol of the diversity of colonial America’s population, which included people from many different African cultures,” said Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation trustee Fred D. Thompson Jr. in a press release. “Diallo—his image and story—is an ideal teaching opportunity for the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown galleries.”
“Diallo’s visage speaks for the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans and African Americans who remain largely unknown, yet who constituted a major part of late-colonial America’s population,” added Thomas E. Davidson, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation senior curator.
Davidson hopes the planned American Revolution Museum will help “convey the way in which the American Revolution represented the beginning of the end for slavery in the United States. While the Revolution did not end slavery by itself, it created an intellectual, moral, and political climate in which the practice could not and did not continue forever.”
Diallo’s story, Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa; Who was a Slave About Two Years in Maryland; and Afterwards Being Brought to England, was Set Free, and Sent to His Native Land in the Year 1734, as told by Bluett, was eventually embraced by the abolitionist movement.
“Although he won his own freedom with an astonishing stroke of his pen and was the first to publish a story of enslavement and redemption in English, his extraordinary experiences had no impact whatsoever on his attitude regarding the institution of slavery. One of the first things he did upon returning home was to buy two horses and a female slave. Unlike the many slave narratives that would follow, Solomon’s story could not be construed as anti–slavery, only anti–his own enslavement. The world of slavery would not be so easily altered.”
Excerpt From: Jr. Henry Louis Gates. “The African Americans.” Hay House, 2012-04-30. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.
/* First to Fly, a True African-American Adventure
Book Reviews: Inspirational Fiction • Published: August 10, 2010
The Egyptian Physician, artist and aero modeler, Dr. Khalil Messiha rediscovered a model glider or sailplane dating from the fourth or third century B.C. The glider, which is made of sycamore wood, looks remarkably futuristic and bares a close resemblance to the American Hercules Transport Aircraft. http://ezinearticles.com/?First-to-Fly,-a-... */
How can an oil painting of a slave be of such high priority to post? This is a distraction! Focusing on the past for the most part is always a distraction. It takes away the mental energy to look forward because we are always looking backwards.
There are very important things Black Americans as a people should have in their minds. One of these important things is how Black Americans can become one people and do away with what divides us; the Christian and Islamic religions.
Another very important thing Black Americans as a people should have in our minds is sovereignty; a country of our own. It is not a big thing since God did it for the children of Israel and Moses 4000 years ago. So it can be repeated for Black Americans in my right. I have the faith that it is going to happen as God reveal it to me to reveal it to you all as well.
You are unintentionally misleading yourself and all those that commented.
I wondering, how does Watley Harry sound?
Sunday, June 22nd 2014 at 10:17PM
Steve Williams
Steve,
Ever since I knew you four years ago my opinion of you then is the same now. You are extremely stupid. A stupid White man is a sight to see since most people would assume that because you are White you are intelligent. Steve, you are extremely stupid!
“From an African perspective, whether as leaders or common people, Europeans were largely irrelevant to the actual enslavement of individuals. While this notion flies in the face of our common assumptions about the history of the enslavement of Africans, the institution of slavery and the trade in slaves to Europeans in West and Central Africa was more a manifestation of local politics and economic structures, resulting primarily from the many wars that plagued central West Africa, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, than it was an institution forcibly imposed on Africans by Europeans. The transatlantic slave trade resulted from a mutuality of commercial interests between various African elites and European merchants. It surprises many of us today to learn that Europeans sold guns to African monarchs, rather than dominated them with arms.”
Excerpt From: Jr. Henry Louis Gates. “The African Americans.” Hay House, 2012-04-30. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.
Steve, Mr. Gates is talking about Africans, Africa and the relationship the Africans had with the Europeans. I am talking about a NEW race of people; Black Americans. So, Mr. Gates and I are not talking about the same people and you are so ignorant that you can’t figure that out. I’ve been saying for the past four years that Black Americans are not African people and you still haven’t gotten it. You are stupid, big time!
I'm not talking to you Harry. This blog isn't about your new race, prophethood or any of your inane ****. Go away.
Monday, June 23rd 2014 at 10:21AM
Steve Williams
Steve,
I am talking to my people. Remember that you and I are racially different. This site is for the most part a site for my kind people. Remember that you are white man.
If any one is to go away it should be you, Steve!
Monday, June 23rd 2014 at 10:52AM
Harry Watley
/* How Appalling!
Are we to stand by and allow this type of 'Racist' dialog to continue here on BIA?
Are we as 'Black People' going to approve this blatant and obnoxious text to be displayed on OUR Network? What is the world thinking of US when this vile behavior rears its ugly head?
This man continues to insult and embarrass our people as vulgar unthinking people who condone such activity. The world will not forget that this unprofessional behavior existed on 'Black In America!' I cannot understand why it is that commenters continually converse with a being such as this creature who calls itself a prophet - and yes...We Allow It By Continually Communicating with the beast.
How many of you recall the "Willie Lynch Theory? "What about the "One Rotten Apple Theory?" It's true...it can bring us all down.
In my opinion, it is the devil who said, "The best trick on mankind is to make him believe that he doesn't exist!" Have we/you all succumbed to this madness? someone needs to address this thing immediately and stop this thing who professes to represent 'Black People!'
For my part, I do intend to file a complaint to the authoritative controllers and anyone else who has jurisdiction over this site as well as any other entity who will listen and put an end to this behavior.
What About You?
This is not how Black People Behave! We Are A Proud People and Not Animals! There are a great many cures for diseases and viruses... One such cure is eradication and illumination!
~SANKOFA~
Stand Up To Villainy My People - Do Not Allow This To Continue!
Which is what I've done as of this morning. Not out of personal offense but for the common good.
Monday, June 23rd 2014 at 3:51PM
Steve Williams
Greetings Mr. Gregory,
I know you have always been jealous and envious of me that I am what you wish you could have been in my right. I remember when we got into it you came up short and you blocked me. That was about two years ago in my right.
Anyway, I liked your analogy of the one rotten apple theory. You say that it is true and that it can bring us all down. Well, it is also true that one good apple can raise all of us up. I am optimistic. When I see the glass I see it as half full. You having a negative mind will see the glass half empty.
You could also look at your example in this way. If it was up to you would see Moses as a devil. You probably feel that Moses was in Egypt to bring the children of Israel down. Nothing good is ever said about a prophet by his own people.
Mr. Gregory, what man, theologian Universities and preachers ever said that prophets are racially different? No one has ever realized that prophets are racially different. That's a bombshell and for that you all want to crucify me like when the Jewish people crucified Jesus?
Mr. Gregory, dummy I will be all that you say I am if you prove that anything I said was wrong. When I call you all ignorant, stupid, dummies that are what you all are based on you all irrational thinking. Prophet Amos, Jeremiah and Isaiah called their people ignorant and stupid based on the things they did and shortly thereafter they would be taken into captivity rather heed the warning of Amos and Jeremiah.
You unbelievers and heathens had better pay attention to the things I say!
I want you all to be mindful of what I am about to type!
No matter what the differences are between us Black Americans you dummies have a White homos*xual Steve leading and instigating Blacks against Blacks? What you are seeing is the concept and theory of the Willie Lynch letter. Divide them and you can conquer them and that is exactly what that White homos*xual Steve is trying to do. But nothing will work against me because I am really who I say I am.
Why White people are more intelligent then us Black Americans is because you have never seen a Black American causing dissension and separation in the White race. When you find two or more White people in an argument with each other and they hear the Indians coming the argument between them cease and they join together and fight the Indians. That is intelligence. Let's see if you all will fight me on behalf of the White homos*xual Steve. If you do than nothing has changed since the days of plantation slavery because you all got a White man running you and thinking for you and encouraging you to hurt one of the own, Prophet Harry.
Let me see if the White homos*xual Steve can work the concept of the Willie Lynch letter on you all?
Did you know Harry that the Willy Lynch letter is a fabrication? But even so, you should have learned something from it.
Monday, June 23rd 2014 at 4:54PM
Steve Williams
Steve,
I want you out from among us Black Americans especially at our beginning stage of becoming a real and sovereign people. White people think differently from other races. The Caucasians history is turning the Indians against Indians, turning the Africans against the Africans and turning the Chinese against Chinese. You would like to see Mr. Gregory, the deacon and Mr. Soso like you got Cynthia and Irma against Jamaal Abraham and like turning David Johnston against me. At one time you were trying to encourage me to turn against David Johnston and I are rightly told you I couldn't do that!
Your attitude and desire is traveling among us seeking to do us great harm; the greatest of these harms is us allowing you to turn us against each other! Those days are coming to an end White homos*xual Steve!
