Thomas, Sarah (2018) Envisaging a future for slavery: Agostino Brunias and the imperial politics of labor and reproduction. Eighteenth-Century Studies 52 (1), pp. 115-133. ISSN 0013-2586.
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Abstract
The paintings and prints of Agostino Brunias (1730-1796) served not only to visualise some of the British Empire’s newest colonies following the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War, but also to encourage settlement by presenting a utopian vision of slave societies that were content, wealthy and, most importantly, self-sustaining. This paper argues that Brunias’s imagery contributed to the ameliorationist rhetoric that accompanied the rise of abolitionism in Britain. By avoiding scenes of plantation labor, discipline and punishment, and emphasising instead the refinement, robust health and fertility of slaves and free people of color, it purported to confirm that amelioration could safeguard slavery’s future.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Copyright © 2018 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. This article first appeared in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Volume 52, Issue 1, Fall, 2018, pages 115 to 133. |
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Agostino Brunias, slavery in art, amelioration, Ceded Islands, slaves and reproduction |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Nineteenth-Century Studies, Centre for |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Thomas |
| Date Deposited: | 29 May 2018 09:45 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:42 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/22549 |
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