Sarah Lewis Instagram – Flora.
This is of the images I’ll teach from today in my Harvard Vision & Justice class, a silhouette of an enslaved woman named Flora. It accompanied the handwritten sale bill. She was sold for 25 pounds sterling on Dec. 13, 1796 to A. Benjamin of Stratford, Connecticut, from M. Dwight of New Haven.
The image is a silhouette, that 18th and 19th century practice that seemed to democratize the portrait. We can see the process of making-the sharp lines of the scissor cutting through the paper accenting her hair and profile. The image has been so critical for understanding who counts and who belongs in the United States, and how central for histories of liberation.
We’ll honor you today in class, Flora. Over 200 years later, our joy in living and the attention we pay to your life will be a tribute.
This image was at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2018-19 in the show, “Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now,” curated by Asma Naeem, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of prints, drawings, and media arts.
Photo: Corinne Purtill | Posted on 29/Jan/2024 20:21:13
