This disturbing image was created for a book entitled, Narrative of a Five-Years' Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam. The author, Englishman John Gabriel Stedman, was hired by the Dutch to help quell slave uprisings in their South American colony. In his "narrative" he describes the plants and animals he encountered, as well as how he and fellow soldiers tortured runaway slaves who had been recaptured.
A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows is based on a crude sketch by Stedman, engraved by the famous English poet and artist, William Blake. Its graphic depiction of a slave in Surinam hanging by a single rib illustrates the general lack of compassion whites had when dealing with enslaved Africans throughout the world.
This picture is absolutely disgusting to say the least. Although it is just a painting or a drawing, this depicts some reality that occurred in the times of slavery. It is understood by most that brutally murdering African Americans came about by beating them to death, or also by lynching. With lynching, however, there is a rope hanging around the victim’s neck. This picture avoids that all together, and shows an African American man impaled by a hook of sorts. I am not entirely sure what action requires this harsh of a punishment, but it seems absolutely unacceptable. According to this post, this person was alive when he was hung up his ribs. Its hard to even fathom the pain of sharp hooks impaling someone else’s flesh. Even if the person was dead and was hung up by the ribs, that is still uncalled for, and just unnecessary, and simply absurd. This picture is good because it uncovers a truth about the harshness of slavery, and what actually occurs in the lives of slaves. This picture may be just a tad bit extreme, but this extreme factor may make people understand how terrible slavery is, and it may change their ways of thinking after looking at it.
ReplyDeleteBy: Jake Robinson
Lynching was often represented in art, but this one presentation is one of the most striking I have seen. Indeed, lynching "art" often pictures an African American hung by the neck. But the fact that on this picture, the individual is hung by the ribs is a stron message of how awful and crual White people were towards African Americans.
ReplyDeleteHis eyes are open, and the title lets us know that this lynching had taken place on a living person, reinforcing the crualty of the act.
Indeed, White people of that time appear to have no moral, regrets, or concern about their act. They lynched African American as one would join his friend for a beer today. How can a such inhuman act be performed so easily and naturally? I wonder how people did not have nightmares about their acts, and how they could think that was the way it was supposed to be, because of a skin color. It questions man's maturity over the years, and still today ununderstanble actions are taken by people that seem shocking and unjustified, reflecting man's contant seek for power.